Church Of St Clement

Church of St Clement

This is a parish church of complex date and development, with origins around 1200, substantial rebuilding in the 14th and 15th centuries, and later restorations in 1665, 1876 and 1909. The 1876 restoration included shortening the chancel by one bay. The building is constructed of ashlar with lined render to some walls, and has lead roofs concealed behind parapets.

The plan comprises a western tower, clerestoried nave, north and south aisles, a north chapel, chancel, and south porch.

The tower is a 15th-century structure in four stages of ashlar with moulded string courses and battlemented parapets topped by eight pinnacles. Corner buttresses are surmounted by gargoyles. To the third stage on all but the east face are cusped two-light windows with ogee heads to the lights and a quatrefoil above. The belfry stage contains paired cusped ogee-headed openings with panel tracery and double-chamfered surround. The west door features a concave moulded surround and traceried spandrels set within a moulded rectangular frame with shafts. The west window has three cusped-headed lights with panel tracery, a continuously moulded surround and hood mould terminating in human head stops.

The rendered north aisle contains a 14th-century window with three cusped ogee lights and reticulated tracery, an ogee-headed north doorway with moulded hood and finial with human head stops, a three-light window in a single-chamfered four-centred arched surround, and a 14th-century five-light window with reticulated tracery, moulded head and hood with human head stops. A smaller similar three-light window appears in the east wall. The 15th-century clerestory consists of four triple windows with cusped heads to the lights and single-chamfered four-centred arched surrounds.

The ashlar chancel has two three-light reticulated windows on each side and a similar repositioned window to the east. The rendered south aisle contains a three-light window to the east wall with pointed heads to the lights and a four-centred arched surround, a similar window in the west wall, and two further similar windows in the south. The gabled south porch has a single-chamfered outer doorway with moulded hood and human head label stops, and a single-chamfered inner doorway of which one human head label stop remains to the left. The roof is a clasped purlin type dated 1665.

Interior

The nave has four-bay arcades with northern responds that are annular and date to around 1200, matching the spurred bases of the arcades. The remaining arches are 14th-century work with double-chamfered profiles, octagonal piers and capitals. The 15th-century tower arch has hollow-chamfered octagonal responds, moulded capitals and a double-chamfered arch. The chancel arch features octagonal corbels with a double-chamfered arch. The nave and aisle roofs contain substantial medieval timberwork including moulded principals and bosses. Random 14th-century carved heads are distributed across the nave and south aisle walls.

In the south aisle stands a small piscina with octagonal base. The north aisle contains a further arched piscina and a plain aumbry. In the north aisle wall is a 15th-century four-centred arched doorway to the rood loft, which is also visible from the south side of the aisle. Traces of 15th-century painted decoration and script survive in the aisles. The chancel has an arched braced roof incorporating medieval elements, supported by 19th-century carved corbels.

Fittings

An 18th-century panelled tower screen has plain pilasters and a central doorway with elliptical head. Other 18th-century panelling, probably reset, stands at the west end of the south aisle. The 15th-century font is a plain octagonal bowl on a pedestal.

In the chancel rests a marble slab bearing a fragment of a fine 14th-century brass, approximately seven feet long. The brass consists of a foliated cross with a four-loaved ornament enclosing a cross at its centre. The base rests on a rock in the sea in which swim five fishes. The stem and inscription have been lost, but the monument is thought to commemorate Stephen de See, Parson of Grainthorpe in 1384. The chancel north wall bears a carved stone Gothic wall monument to the Crosland family, dated 1871.

The north chapel was founded in 1358 by Thomas de Kele and William de Wolfhowe.