Church Of St Clement

Church of St Clement, Hastings

A late medieval town church, substantially rebuilt around 1380 following the burning of Hastings in 1377, with 19th-century re-roofing, chancel extension, and south porch. The church stands in Hastings old town amongst timber-framed and brick houses.

The building is constructed of sandstone rubble, with the tower distinguished by chequered patterning of knapped flint and sandstone blocks, echoed on the east wall. The roofs are tiled.

The plan comprises a nave and chancel unified internally, the 19th-century chancel extension having a lower roof with an undercroft beneath. Six-bay north and south aisles flank the nave, with a southwest tower. The west wall, sited on the boundary of Croft Street, angles obliquely. A south porch completes the arrangement.

Externally, the south aisle features gabled buttresses and a coped embattled parapet with three-light windows renewed in the 20th century with Perpendicular-style tracery. The late 19th-century ashlar porch has a shallow gabled parapet and a severely weathered outer doorway with deep hollow chamfer and shafts. The east window, four lights with Perpendicular tracery, is heavily weathered but likely 19th-century work. The north aisle displays two three-light Perpendicular-traceried windows, one square-headed three-light window, and a low-set one-light cinquefoil-headed window. The northwest corner skews northward. The chancel contains wide traceried late 19th-century windows with segmental arches, with a shallow stair projection to the undercroft on the north side. The tower, a large short structure with embattled parapet, features a polygonal southwest stair turret rising above the roof with embattled parapet and low pyramidal cap. The west doorway is deep-chamfered with shafts and shields carved in the spandrels, fitted with a 19th-century planked door with curly strap hinges. A large four-light west window lights the interior.

Inside, the six-bay aisles have arcades with four shafts and four hollows. Statue niches on the west faces of the penultimate east piers are said by Pevsner to mark the pre-19th-century chancel location. Arches into the tower on the east and north sides carry leaf-motif carved capitals. The nave and chancel are ceiled with 19th-century wagon roofs; the chancel wagon is canted with carved bosses. The chancel contains a pretty 19th-century mosaic reredos in a stone frame with matching painted mosaic sedilia.

Notable interior features include 1721 painted figures of Moses and Aaron by Roger Mortimer on the east wall of the south chancel chapel; a wall monument to John Collier, died 1760; two-tier brass chandeliers given in 1763; fragments of a medieval screen at the west end; a 19th-century or recut octagonal stone font bowl carved with symbols and an elegant pyramidal crocketted cover; nave benches with shouldered ends pierced with trefoils; and a brass eternal light with high-quality lettering commemorating the marriage of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal in this church in 1860, given by Rossetti's family. Stained glass in the north and south chancel windows is by Percy Bacon. A particularly fine 19th-century window in the south aisle is complemented by 20th-century east windows in the chancel and south aisle by Philip Cole, head of Hastings Art College, with one south aisle window executed by his pupils.

Gate piers with distinctive glazed lanterns and highly decorative ironwork mark the churchyard entrance. The churchyard is enclosed with low stone walls topped with rounded copings and plain iron railings.