Church Of St Clement

Church of St Clement, Sandwich

A substantial parish church of outstanding architectural and historical importance. The building was constructed in the latter half of the 12th century, with the chancel added in the 13th century. The north chapel, also probably 13th century, was followed by the addition of aisles in the 14th century. The nave was rebuilt and a north porch added in the 15th century. The church underwent major restoration and alteration between 1865 and 1870 under the direction of Joseph Clarke, Surveyor to the Dioceses of Rochester and Canterbury.

The church is built from Caen stone, with mixed wall construction comprising knapped and unknapped flint, ragstone, ironstone, pebbles, brick and tile, and stone dressings. The roofs are covered with Kent peg tiles.

The plan is rectangular, comprising a three-bay nave with north and south aisles, and a chancel with shallow projection. The north chapel is dedicated to St Margaret, and a clergy vestry infills the northeast angle between the sanctuary and chapel. The south aisle is effectively divided into two by the organ, with the eastern end now serving as a choir vestry. A two-storey north porch contains a stair in its southwest angle.

The church retains the central crossing tower of its original Norman cruciform plan, which is carried on four tall arches with a northwest stair turret. This square Norman tower features three tiers of blind arcading and a crenellated parapet added by Clarke. The tower has Norman windows to the stair turret. The nave has a shallow-pitched roof, while other roofs are steeply pitched. Offset buttresses are used throughout, with angle buttresses to the west and east ends.

Much of the fenestration was altered or replaced by Clarke in the 19th century, and virtually all window tracery is Victorian. Early 19th-century engravings indicate the extent of these changes. The west window to the north aisle and the east window to the south aisle, which had been partly infilled with smaller windows, were reinstated to their original size. The Early English style triple-lancets to the chancel are entirely conjectural and replaced a 15th-century window. The chancel has Perpendicular side windows. The nave clerestory windows have segmental arches. The gabled porch has its upper parts repaired in 16th or 17th-century brick. An oak-panelled studded door bears the date 1655 and the initials 'RRWH / WW' in stud lettering.

The interior contains nave arcades of three bays with complex mouldings comprising a continuous moulding to the outer arches and piers, with inset arches carried on shafts. The shallow-pitched oak coffered roof has been recently repainted and gilded, with carved bosses at junctions and paired angels with outstretched wings to the ridge beam—an unusual feature in Kent, more commonly associated with East Anglian churches. The pulpit and pews are 19th century.

The tower is carried on four tall arches with roll mouldings continued from respond shafts. Round outer shafts are recessed, while paired half-round shafts support the inner arch. The carved Romanesque capitals display scallops, foliage, and grotesque faces. A blind-arcaded frieze with decorated capitals appears on the inner face of the tower above the arches. The doorway to the stair turret on the northwest angle of the tower has a late Saxon or early Norman tympanum with intricate low-relief carving depicting intersecting arcades with a stag, and an extrados with carved staggered voussoirs. The oak door has a cinquefoil traceried head.

Tie-beam and crown-post roofs cover the aisles, chancel, St Margaret's chapel, and choir vestry. Those to the aisles and chancel have plaster slopes and exposed ashlar pieces, while those to the chapel and vestry have exposed rafters, predominantly medieval in the case of the former. The sanctuary has a 19th-century canted rafter roof. A 19th-century screen divides St Margaret's chapel.

The chancel contains 15th-century oak choir stalls with ogee bench ends and poppyheads, cinquefoil-traceried panels to the front, and one misericord seat with a carved shield. The stalls are raised on a moulded stone plinth inset with hollow acoustic jars—rare survivals. Acoustic jars are also visible on the east wall of the sanctuary. A piscina appears on the south wall of the sanctuary, with a blocked aumbry to its west, truncated by the large arch to the choir vestry. The north sanctuary wall features a blocked lancet window, a large 15th-century squint with a four-centred arch, drip-mould and carved spandrels, and an aumbry next to an arched doorway leading to the northeast vestry. The altar in St Margaret's Chapel incorporates two medieval altar stones formerly used as tombstones, and includes a gradus or altar step. A piscina with a 14th-century cusped ogee head appears at the east end of the choir vestry. The south aisle wall has a piscina, stoup, and doorway with drip-mould and carved spandrels. The walls are plastered and painted. Some medieval encaustic floor tiles survive along with various old flooring materials and 19th-century encaustic tiles.

The church contains many noteworthy fittings and monuments. A fine octagonal limestone font in the north aisle bears carved roses and heraldic emblems, including the arms of ancient Sandwich and those of Archdeacon Robert Hallum, by whom it is believed the font was given around 1406. The font has a panelled stem with empty statue niches and a two-tiered octagonal base. Notable monuments include that to Frances Rampston on the south wall of the chancel (died 1611), a kneeling female figure in an aedicular niche rendered in marble, and Mary Hayward (died 1751), with an epitaph set within an unusual cut brick aedicule. A mutilated niche on the north wall of the south aisle holds a statue of St John, said to have been removed from Lincoln Cathedral by the Puritans. Numerous early to mid-19th-century neo-Classical wall tablets are present. A large, very worn medieval brass depicts a male figure and, originally, his wife under a double canopy. Many indents of brasses are visible.

Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and the chief harbour for the export of wool, serving as one of England's most important naval bases until the harbour began to silt up in the 15th century. The town's former prosperity is reflected in its three substantial parish churches: St Clement's, St Mary's, and St Peter's. The tower originally carried a spire, which was taken down in 1668 as a precautionary measure following the recent collapse of the towers of St Peter's and St Mary's churches. The church fell into disrepair during the 19th century before its restoration. St Clement's became the parish church following the union of the three Sandwich parishes in 1948.

The church is of outstanding architectural importance for its imposing Norman tower, which ranks among the most notable surviving examples nationally. It possesses major interest for its later phases, including splendid nave arcades and an angel-boss roof, together with a wealth of medieval features of various dates and numerous monuments dating from the 17th to 19th centuries. Its setting within the Cinque Port of Sandwich, one of England's least-altered walled medieval towns containing two other highly-graded medieval churches and a dense concentration of listed buildings, endows the church with outstanding historic interest and group value. The medieval and later churchyard walls are separately listed.