Church Of St Remigius

Church of St Remigius, Long Clawson

A church of 14th and 15th-century date with earlier origins. The chancel and transepts were largely rebuilt and the church extensively restored in 1893.

The building is constructed of coursed squared ironstone with limestone dressings. The nave, aisles and porches have lead roofs, while the chancel and transepts are roofed in slate. The plan comprises a chancel, vestry, central tower, transepts, an aisled nave, and north and south porches.

The two-bay chancel contains a three-light east window and two-light windows to the south, all with hood moulds and 19th-century Decorated-style tracery. The north vestry, added in the 19th century, has similar two-light windows to the north and a double-chamfered door to the east with hood mould and label stops.

The central tower features a battlemented parapet and two-light bell-chamber openings, each with different Decorated tracery. The east opening has round trefoil-headed lights with a trefoil to the head. The north has cinquefoil-headed lights with mouchettes to the head. The west and south openings have trefoil-headed lights with patterns of mouchettes to the heads, all with hood moulds.

The transepts have three-light windows to north and south with 19th-century tracery of cinquefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil to the head, both with hood moulds. A small blocked round-headed Norman window is cut from one stone on the east side of the south transept.

The nave has a three-window clerestory of two-light windows. Those to the north are 19th-century work with cusped heads to the lights and straight heads, while those to the south lack tracery and have Tudor-arched heads; all have hood moulds.

The north aisle contains a three-light window to the left of the porch with ogee-arched heads to the lights, a straight head and hood mould with label stops. The north doorway has a sunk quadrant moulding, hood mould and a late 18th or early 19th-century panelled door. The large north porch has a doorway with deep hollow chamfer between thin chamfers and hood mould, offset flanking buttresses, and a blocked one-light window to the west with straight head and chamfered surround. The porch gable has a battlemented parapet with a cinquefoil-headed niche to the apex.

The south aisle has a three-light window to the right of the porch with cinquefoil-headed lights, a four-centred head and hood mould. The south doorway has a chamfer and depressed ogee-arched head with a six-panel 18th-century door. The south porch has a double wave-moulded doorway with hood mould and label stops, probably formerly corbel heads. A small blocked one-light window to the east has a chamfered surround and straight head. The porch gable has a battlemented parapet with a sundial to the apex.

The west end has a three-light window to the nave with Perpendicular tracery and hood mould. The aisles have two-light windows with cinquefoil-headed lights, a quatrefoil to the head and hood moulds with label stops.

Interior

The crossing arches have semi-circular responds and chamfered piers with moulded capitals and triple-chamfered arches. The nave has three-bay arcades with octagonal piers, polygonal responds, moulded capitals and double-chamfered arches. The north-west pier has a circular abacus, doubtless re-used.

The octagonal font has blank tracery to the stem, shields in quatrefoils to the bowl and leaf carvings to the angles of the underside of the bowl.

The Royal Arms of 1799, signed J Tyler and executed in oil on canvas, are displayed in the church.

The present 19th-century high altar conceals a smaller, lower altar of limestone dated 1737 with a Latin inscription in a panel beginning "DEO TRIUNO", recording its gift by Reverend William Turvile.

Monuments include a stone effigy of an armed knight of the late 13th century, very worn, said to be William Bozon. A large slate wall monument with shaped top commemorates Mrs Mary Turvile, died 1737. A similar wall monument records Reverend William Turvile, died 1740, and was put up by his second wife Ellen, noting his rebuilding of the rectory. A wall monument of veined marbles with an obelisk top commemorates Robert Garton, died 1792.

The 1893 restoration was preceded by a proposal to demolish and rebuild the church to designs by John Howitt, architect of Nottingham, but this was not carried out.