Crest

(Lat. crista), the ornamental finishing which surmounts a screen, canopy, or other similar subordinate portion of a building, whether a battlement, open carved work, or other enrichment: a row of Tudor-flowers is very often used in late Perpendicular work. The name is sometimes applied to the top stones on the parapet and other similar parts of a Gothic building, usually called the capping or coping. The finials of gables and pinnacles are also sometimes called crests. Textiles were often made with a row of ornaments, resembling small battlements or Tudor-flowers, on the top, and glazed, and still are so occasionally, but in general they are quite plain. Frequently these ornaments were formed in lead when the ridge of the roof was covered with that material, as at Exeter Cathedral.