Church Of St Clement

Church of St Clement

This Grade I listed church on St Clement's Road was built between 1871 and 1873 as the first major work of architect J D Seddings. The tower, added between 1890 and 1893 after Seddings's death, was redesigned above first-floor level by Henry Wilson.

The tower features a west doorway recessed under a large cusped segmental arch with rubble spandrels. An 8-light west window displays a Crucifixion sculpture by F W Pomeroy, positioned over ogee lights with a foliage-carved sill. Three 2-light windows light each face of the belfry, with sculptured medallions on the transom. Openwork traceried battlements sit between octagonal turrets on corner buttresses with foliage corbels. A larger stair turret projects from the north-east corner, topped by a central Hertfordshire spike spirelet. The church and tower are otherwise built of smooth ashlar.

The church itself has a north aisle featuring 3-light windows set on a continuous sill over a moulded plinth, with a high west window. Far-projecting castellated lead spouts on brackets drain to the gutter. A north porch with a statue in the gable and intricate iron gates provides access. The north chapel (Lady Chapel) has a deep flat parapet pierced with small quatrefoils, with small flat-headed lancets set between gabled buttresses with set-offs. A 4-light east window is also flat-headed. Tall 2-light windows between buttresses light the south wall of the nave.

The south-east vestry is built of red brick with small Tudor-style bricks and stone dressings. A large stone chimney with vertical ribbing and traceried buttresses rises on the west gable, with a 5-light window to the south. An adjoining higher organ chamber and oratory have similar brickwork and a chimney, with a flat parapet. A passage to the vicarage, against the brick and stone east wall, features timber white-painted cloister openings with 4-centred arches beneath a lean-to roof and a hipped entrance lobby roof. The link to the original vicarage has been severed by the construction of a new vicarage further east in 1960.

Interior

The interior has a 5-bay north arcade with acutely pointed arches and thin continuous mouldings descending into slender piers, interrupted only by a thin stringcourse at capital level. A blind frieze of Perpendicular stone panelling appears at clerestory level, with a kingpost roof on bowed tiebeams. A tall tower arch frames the west window, which contains glass by Holiday dating to around 1895. The north aisle roof also has large tiebeams supported on timber wall shafts.

The octagonal font is carved with sculptured panels and stands on steps, with a cover crowned by a crocketed spire over gabled foliage panels. An octagonal pulpit, similarly carved with sculptured panels on an octagonal base, is railed with Art Nouveau finials added around 1890. A brass eagle lectern on a square base with an intricate parapet and pair of statues was made by Barkentin and Krall in 1876. A window over the pulpit is by Bryans and Webb, accompanying a tablet to Reverend C H Thompson (died 1899). A notable bronze bas-relief of Reverend W Purton (died 1891), probably by F W Pomeroy, stands flanked by quattrocento angels. The timber lobby to the north door features linenfold panelling and a foliage cornice.

The chancel arch has no capitals but encloses an elaborate rood screen modelled on that at Berkeley, Gloucestershire: a wide spread segmental arch with traceried spandrels beneath a straight cornice, interrupted centrally by a narrow ogee arch with elaborate iron gates. The chancel has a pointed wagon roof on an angel frieze, with stencil patterns on walls (painted over in 1969). The interior is dominated by a huge reredos of 1882–3, carved by G W Seale, depicting the Adoration of the Magi flanked by elaborate niches and a pinnacled canopy over the original central gilt cross. The east wall to left and right displays two tiers of statues under vaulted coving. The east window contains glass by Bryans and Webb in Kempe style, circa 1899. Two remarkable south windows, circa 1895, are by Christopher Whall and feature a brown and silver wash effect. Choir stalls with poppy heads date to around 1875. Sedilia with foliage-carved round arches are of timber, probably by Brindley, circa 1905. The Lady Chapel has a stone screen of three 3-light openings with transom plus an ogee arch, matched by a wrought-iron balcony screen on the south of the chancel. The Lady Chapel walls are panelled in stone, with a reredos depicting the Lily flanked by the Annunciation and Expulsion from the Garden, with pinnacled statues at each end. A wagon-roofed ceiling features criss-cross ribs and glass by Westlake. Elaborate encaustic tiles appear in the chancel and chapel, with tile patterns also in the nave.

The Church of St Clement forms a group with the Churchyard Cross and Graves, Vicarage Walls, St Clement School, Schoolhouse, and No 12A.