The Church Of St Clement

The Church of St Clement is a church built between 1872 and 1874, with a vestry added in 1880. It was designed by J B & W Atkinson. The building is constructed of red brick with blue brick banding, ashlar dressings, and steep slate roofs, featuring ashlar coped gables and kneelers. It has a chamfered ashlar plinth and angle buttresses with ashlar set-offs, along with a dentilated brick cornice.

The church comprises a nave and chancel under a continuous roof, with side aisles and an apsidal east end. The west front has a tall four-light pointed arch window with reticulated tracery, above three small graduated lancets illuminating the roof space. The side aisles feature single small lancets. A projecting octagonal bellcote with a short, slated octagonal spire tops the north corner of the gable.

The south facade has a projecting gabled porch with double plank doors and ornate iron hinges within a moulded and banded pointed arch. To the right of the porch is a single lancet, followed by three two-light pointed arch windows, a priest’s doorway with a shouldered hood under a pointed arch, and a further lancet. All windows have reticulated tracery. The clerestory above contains four sets of triple lancets, with a pair of lancets and a projecting chimney to the east.

The east end of the south aisle includes a slightly later, apsidal vestry with two-light and three-light ashlar lancets linked by triple blue bands. The east end has a central tall three-light pointed arch window flanked by similar two-light windows, all with reticulated tracery. The north facade mirrors the south in window arrangement, but features a projecting gabled porch on the right.

Inside, the church has brick arcades with five pointed arches, supported on circular stone piers with elaborate stone capitals. The responds have pairs of smaller columns at either end. A circular stone font is supported on four circular columns. There is an ornate octagonal stone pulpit with traceried fronts, a tiled floor, wooden pews, and a wooden roof. The reredos was created by Mr Thrupp, framed by G W Milburn. The church includes choir stalls and a screen made by Robert 'Mousey' Thompson in the mid-18th century. The east window has stained glass designed by Capronnier, installed in 1875.

The church contains various fittings salvaged from St Mary Bishophill Senior, which was demolished in 1963, including monuments, charity boards, and two mayoral boards documenting the mayoralty of the architect John Carr of York in 1770 and 1785.