Church Of St Clement

The Church of St Clement is a parish church, now redundant and undergoing conversion to a tearoom and craft centre. It was built between 1885 and 1886 by W. Mortimer, incorporating fragments from an earlier 13th-century and mid-14th-century church. The church is constructed from limestone and greenstone rubble with limestone ashlar detailing, and has slate roofs with decorative red ridge tiles and a cross finial.

The building comprises a west tower, a nave with a north aisle and south porch, and a chancel with a north vestry. The west tower has a plinth and two-stage angle buttresses. A 13th-century west doorway features a steeply pointed head, roll moulded surround, imposts and a plank door. Lancet windows and a moulded string course are above, with bell openings on all four sides, each featuring a pair of lancets. The north aisle has three pairs of lancets and a 20th-century doorway with an overlight and panelled doors. The vestry has a lancet window and an east doorway replaced in the 20th century, with a square window to the right. The chancel’s north side has a single lancet, while the east end has three lancets, a round relieving arch and a cinquefoil above. The chancel’s south side has two lancets, and the south side of the nave has a rectangular 14th century window with a richly moulded, cusped ogee head and hood mould, missing its central mullion and now filled with 20th-century glass. A large lancet is to the east, with a gabled porch beyond and a pointed 14th-century doorway with a moulded surround and an inner 13th-century doorway with a pointed roll-moulded head, slender roll-moulded jambs, a hood mould and plank doors. A lancet window sits to the west of the porch.

Inside, the 19th-century tower arch has a pointed, double-chamfered head with foliate corbels. The north arcade comprises five bays with round piers, simply moulded capitals, double-chamfered, pointed arches, and east and west responds with head corbels. A 19th-century pointed chancel arch also has a double-chamfered head with foliate corbels. A 13th-century pointed doorway leading from the north aisle to the vestry has a double-chamfered head and jambs. The bowl of an octagonal 13th-century font survives, while the pedestal and base were recently destroyed. The church has 19th-century roofs. Architectural fragments from the earlier church of St Clement, which was located several hundred yards from the present site, were incorporated into the new building.