Yeah it's difficult but possible to imagine the impact of these gigantic stone phalluses especially in rural towns like winchester or wells in previous centuries, Everyone would have been huddling in grotty residences made of twig and shit, marvelling at these cutting edge of high tech spires, constructed by magicians over generations, jutting up above the hovels and shacks like a space rocket. Back in the days I guess the churches would not have been stony austere monuments as now but gaudy painted psychedelic facades reaching for the heavens and musty crowded interiors, milling about with livestock, hustlers and buskers, layers and layers of furnishings and cruft, booths and kiosks and incense smelling muddle and chaos.