Church Of St Clement

Church of St Clement

This is a parish church, originally a chapel to Knowlton Court, which dates from the 14th and 15th centuries and was largely restored in 1855 by William White. The building is constructed of flint with a plain tiled roof.

The church consists of a chancel and nave only. The fenestration is largely 19th century in Geometric and Perpendicular styles, with the west window being the most unrestored example, dating to the 15th century. Offset buttresses to the nave and chancel corners also survive from before the 19th century. The kneelered gables, bell cote, and cross finials are all 19th century additions, as is the lozenge set clock face on the west wall.

The interior features a west end of the nave that is stepped in and recessed from the main body. The chancel is also stepped in, with a chamfered arch on corbels. The barrel roof is plastered with slender detached ribs that touch the ceiling only at the ridge line. On the east wall are an ogee-headed piscina and two 19th-century ogee-headed niches.

The church contains numerous fittings and monuments. A turned baluster altar rail, possibly dating to 1716 when a new altar was given, is present. The pulpit is octagonal with arcaded panels and strapwork frieze and a ramped rail, in the 17th-century style but probably dating to the early 20th century. Two lower reading desks are mid-19th century. Box pews, font, and fittings including an iron corona lucis are mid-19th century. A wooden relief carved and painted coat of arms of Charles II hangs over the north door. A hatchment in the chancel includes two military banners. Stained glass of the 1850s and 1860s is found throughout the church.

The monuments include several wall plaques and tablets. In the nave is a monument to Elizabeth Peyton, died 1642, featuring a white and black wall plaque with a bowled oval centre with palm fronds on a swagged and scrolled base and a broken segmental pediment above. Two 18th or late 17th-century white oval cartouche wall plaques commemorate Thomas Peyton, died 1510, and John Peyton, died 1560.

In the chancel are monuments to Samuel Peyton, died 1623, and Thomas Peyton, died 1610. Samuel Peyton's monument is a black and white wall tablet on a bolection moulded base with a draped apron, Death's Head, scrolled and lugged side pieces with small festoons, and a broken segmental pediment with arms above. Thomas Peyton's monument is a black and white and gilt wall tablet with a raised central section to the head, brackets and festoons, scrolled sides, and brackets and ears with three achievements. Both monuments were erected by Thomas Peyton Junior.

The most notable monuments commemorate Sir John Narborough and James Narborough, both of whom died in 1707 in a shipwreck off the Scillies with Sir Cloudesley Shovel. Like Shovel's monument in Westminster Abbey, these monuments were raised by Dame Elizabeth Shovel, the mother by previous marriage of the two Narborough brothers and wife of Sir Cloudesley. These monuments are probably, like the Westminster example, by Grinling Gibbons.

The monument to Sir John Narborough and James Narborough is a standing monument in grey veined marble with a tomb chest featuring a panel front showing a naval relief of a ship of the line being wrecked on rocks. Two large weeping putti stand on the chest above a plinth bearing the inscription and two gadrooned urns.

Opposite stands a similar chest tomb monument to Sir John Narborough, died 1688, with a segmental-headed and scrolled plinth over to Lady Elizabeth D'Aeth, died 1721, daughter of Sir John Narborough. The plinth bears a lifesize relief medallion portrait of Lady Elizabeth. This monument was erected by Sir Thomas D'Aeth.

Sir Thomas D'Aeth also raised a black and white tablet in memory of Thomas D'Aeth, died 1708 (exhumed from North Cray) and Elhannah D'Aeth, died 1717, placed over the monument to Lady Elizabeth D'Aeth. This tablet features an apron with brackets, fluted pilasters, a triglyph frieze and cornice with two oil lamp finials, and a central achievement.

A white wall plaque commemorates Sir Narborough D'Aeth, died 1808, and features half-relief carving of a draped canister-shaped urn supported by an open book and Pelican in Piety, with a weeping willow behind and above on a fluted base.