Church Of St Clement

Church of St. Clement

Parish church with Saxon-Norman origins, substantially altered and expanded over the centuries. The building began as a simple axial church in the 12th century, identifiable by its central tower. Around 1200 it was made cruciform with the addition of north and south transepts. The nave was subsequently rebuilt with additional north and south aisles, and the chancel was largely rebuilt in the 13th century. Later modifications include 15th-century fenestration, and major restorations in the 18th century and 1835.

The exterior is constructed of flint with stone dressings and brick, with lead roofs to the nave and south aisle, and tiled roofing to the tower and chancel. The plan comprises a 3-bay nave and south aisle with a south porch, a crossing tower, and a 3-bay chancel. The north aisle and north transept have been demolished; the south transept has been incorporated into the south aisle.

The central axial and later crossing tower has rubble and conglomerate quoins, squared at the upper level. Evidence of later heightening has been removed. The 20th-century restoration reproduced the steeper pitch of 12th-century roof lines, with north and south window openings featuring timber Y-tracery windows with lead glazing bars. East and west openings allow access to pre-1200 roof spaces. An early 19th-century brick battlemented parapet with stone copings surmounts the tower, which has a hipped roof with a central ogee-roofed cupola and weather vane.

The nave's west front has a central 3-light window with c.1835 restoration tracery and two west buttresses. The south aisle's west front displays a 15th-century window, replaced c.1835 with a domestic wooden-framed cross window with lead glazing bars and a drip mould head; an angled gault brick buttress is present. The south side of the south aisle has one central 3-light and two 2-light windows all with c.1835 detailing in 15th-century square drip mould heads, served by two brick buttresses. The 15th-century south porch features a simple 2-centred porch arch, with a continuously chamfered 14th-century inner arch.

The north side of the nave displays a blocked 3-bay former north arcade of c.1200, with an inserted reused 14th-century north door, a central 2-light switch-tracery window (perhaps 18th century, renewed in the 20th century), a north 3-light ogee-head switch-tracery window, and a further blocked arch of the c.1200 north transept addition with a lancet.

The chancel's south side contains two 2-light paired lancets, a south central priest's door with sound hole featuring an Early English quatrefoil with floriated stops, and two east buttresses. Three fine 13th-century stepped lancets occupy the east end. The north side has a 15th-century 2-light window at the east, a central 3-light switch-tracery window, and a west 2-light ogee-headed Y-tracery window.

Interior

Norman work is confined to the axial tower, which retains splayed embrasures to its north and south windows and straight-sided embrasures to its east and west openings into the original roof spaces, now in the upper chamber of the tower. A filled-in arch towards the chancel has simple stone imposts. Plain stone imposts and 2-centred undressed arches of c.1200 on the north side of the tower, north side of the nave, and as the east arch of the south transept establish the sequence of rearrangement from an original nave with axial tower and chancel to a nave and aisles with crossing tower and transepts.

The 13th-century south arcade comprises 3 bays with a plain west impost. One bay has a circular pier with a circular abacus capital with stiff leaves; an adjacent pier has a quatrefoil section with 4 heads to its capital; the easternmost has a quatrefoil pier with a capital without heads. All arches are double hollow-chamfered. The blocked north arcade bears a 14th-century St. Christopher painting.

The 15th-century double-framed nave roof spans 6 bays with battlemented wall plates, arched braced principals with collars and bosses, and moulded through and ridge purlins. The crossing is blocked by an 18th-century wall with a switch-tracery fanlight door. Above are Commandment boards signed by churchwardens dated 1747 and 1748, and a Stuart Royal Arms above the south porch with an altered George III monogram.

The south transept contains a blocked c.1200 east arch with a squint corbel supporting the rood stairs passage. The tower has a 15th-century roof with moulded battlemented wall plates, two arch-braced half-principals with traceried spandrels, and a moulded central purlin.

The chancel features two east lancets with deep reveals, internal shafts with bases and capitals, and arches. A 14th-century south arcade comprises 3 bays with circular piers with bases and capitals and double hollow-chamfered arches; the former south chancel aisle beyond this has been demolished. The north side has ogee-headed stone reveals to east and west windows and a 2-centred arch reveal to the centre.

An octagonal font, perhaps of the 15th century, survives. An 18th-century octagonal panelled goblet pulpit has been cut down. Good 18th-century ledger slabs are present in the chancel.