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ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE 483
which were peculiarly the property and responsibility of the
parishioners.
An immense variety of enlarged and enriched parish
churches were developed in the course of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. These can be considered on a regional
basis, the regional schools being determined partly by economic
considerations such as the availability and cost of transport of
certain kinds of materials, and partly by the tendency to prex
scribe to the masons particular existing buildings as models
which should be taken as a general guide to what was required
by the clients. These examplars were generally chosen from some
readily available example in the neighbourhood and tend to
the formation of a regional school. One interesting example of
this may be found in a type ofchurch which prevailed both in
Devon and in Kent. This is the prevalence of a plan of three
almost equal vessels, the side aisles being of almost the same
width as the central vessel. All three vessels are covered at an
equal height and there is no clerestory; fine examples ofthis type
ofchurch are to be found in both these counties. A smaller and
more striking example of the affinities between these two
found in the church of Chart"
widely separated regions is to^be
ham in Kent, built in the first very years of the fourteenth
century or even a little earlier. This church consists of a broad,
spacious chancel, broad but rather shallow transepts, and a
wide, aisleless nave, the whole being covered with wagon roofs
which meet at the crossing with four great diagonal wooden
ribs, like a skeleton vault. A very favourite addition to make to
a parish church in the late middle ages was a new and am'
bitious tower, generally a western tower. There are clearly
recognizable regional or local schools ofdesign ofwhich those
of Somerset are the most famous, though many of the flint
towers of Norfolk and Suffolk are of admirable proportions
and great splendour. The eastern county churches are par'
ticularly noteworthy for the elegance and slenderness of
their arcades and the great spaciousness of their interiors. The
slenderness of piers was probably a direct consequence of the
need for economy in cut freestone. But above all the eastern