Church Of St Clement

Church of St Clement is a parish church dating from the 15th century, constructed in shale with granite quoins and dressings, and scantle slate roofs with gable ends. The building comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north transept, south aisle and porch.

The north wall of the nave was partly rebuilt in the 19th century. A 15th-century Perpendicular granite 3-light window west of the transept was reset in the 19th century, and an inserted 19th-century Perpendicular style window stands east of the transept. The north transept, which has a straight joint to the nave indicating it is a later addition, is probably 15th-century but features 19th-century cusped-headed windows. The east wall of the chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century to receive a pointed window with rose in tracery. The east wall of the south aisle does not align with the chancel and contains a 15th-century Perpendicular granite window with monolithic jambs.

The south wall is divided into bays in a 1:1:4 arrangement. The second bay is the porch, which has a semi-circular arched moulded granite door frame probably dating to the 15th or 16th century, with a similar inner door. The other bays contain 15th-century granite 3-light Perpendicular windows. The west window of the south aisle is 19th-century in Perpendicular style.

The three-stage west tower is reputed by Pevsner and the Church guide to be 14th-century, and an inscribed date of 1326 appears in the belfry, though the building displays no clear architectural evidence for this dating. A moulded round-headed granite doorframe with hoodmould and relieving arch is probably 15th-century, as is the outer frame of the window above. The bottom stage has buttressing to the corners of its north and south walls. The second stage and parapet have clasping corner buttresses, whereas the top stage is unbuttressed. This top stage may have been inserted in the 16th or 17th century, reusing parapet stonework, with gargoyles over the second string resolving the junction. The granite windows to the upper stage are round-headed with hood moulds and relieving arches, each containing 3 round-headed lights with the centre light taller, and pierced slate louvres. The parapet has corner pinnacles, two of which are 19th-century replacements; the original pinnacles are in the Vicarage garden. The roof is lead.

The interior features a granite near-semi-circular arched arcade with standard A-type (Pevsner) piers of 6 bays between the nave and chancel, and the south aisle, with a further 15th-century arch to the transept. The tall tower arch has an inner rib arch carried on corbels. The roofs are 19th-century, arch-braced over heavy wallplates with shields and baliflower carvings to the nave and south aisle, and incorporating carved wood from old wagon roofs in the porch and transept. Evidence for the fitting of a rood screen survives, though nothing of the screen itself remains. A tower granite newel stair is located in the north-west corner. The lower stages of the tower have very thick north and south walls, swept towards the stair.

The windows feature lively patterns of clear, red, blue, yellow and green glass, dedicated to eminent parishioners of the 1840s to 1860s. Particularly striking is a chancel enamel-painted window of interlacing design, dedicated to Admiral Sir Barrington Reynolds GCB in 1861.

Fittings include 19th-century pine pews with scrolled ends; carved oak from old roof wood forming a reredos panel in the chancel and cut into blocks between the muntins of a modern glazed screen to the transept; an organ near the tower; a painted George III coat of arms; stocks in the porch; an octagonal font with quatrefoils in panels from the 15th or 16th century; a serpentine pulpit; and a slate chest tomb slab with hands holding foliage against the south wall commemorating William, son of James Hankey, dated 1705.

Monuments on the south wall include one to Samuel Thomas of Tregolls, dated 1796, with carved figures in romantic dress signed by Bacon, and one to Rear Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, dated 1811, featuring 3 sailors in period costume, a sinking ship, anchor and medallion against a sunburst, all within a tapered slab.