Church Of St Clement

Church of St Clement

A parish church largely dating from the 15th century, constructed in red sandstone with slate roofs. The building underwent significant renovation circa 1860 under the direction of architect Mr Rowell, including a chancel extension and re-roofing, followed by extensive repairs and alterations in the 1870s by the same architect. Although the present fabric displays Perpendicular styling with a 19th-century Decorated chancel, the base of the tower may date from the 13th century. A church was dedicated at Powderham in 1259, as recorded in Bronescombe's Register.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, north and south five-bay arcades, a disused south porch, and a north vestry. The nave and chancel division was repositioned eastwards by one bay during the chancel extension.

Exterior

The chancel is constructed of snecked sandstone with set-back buttresses. It features a three-light Decorated east window of 1860 with carved label stops and a single-light cusped south window. The south aisle is built in coursed sandstone with buttresses and three-light Perpendicular windows, some entirely of 19th-century date and others substantially repaired at various times during that century. The disused south porch has a moulded outer doorway with cushion stops, a moulded inner doorway, and a probably early 17th-century two-leaf inner door with notable ironwork. It is roofed with an unceiled 19th-century wagon roof.

The north aisle has set-back buttresses at its east end and Perpendicular three-light windows similar to those of the south aisle. A flat-roofed brick vestry adjoins the aisle to the east. The west tower is constructed of battlemented coursed red sandstone with diagonal buttresses and an internal north-west stair turret. Its west face displays a moulded west doorway with cushion stops and a three-light 19th-century west window with capitals to the mullions. Two-light chamfered belfry openings appear on all four faces of the tower, with a square-headed bellringer's opening on the south side.

Interior

The walls are unplastered. A double-chamfered tower arch opens into the body of the church. The 1860 chancel arch features moulded responds with carved capitals. The five-bay north and south arcades have moulded piers and arches with carved capitals. The rood screen is positioned one bay west of the chancel arch. The 19th-century unceiled wagon roofs display moulded ribs and foliage bosses, whilst the south chapel roof (now the organ chamber) retains a good painted scheme.

The rood screen does not fit its present position perfectly. Parts of it are reported to derive from the parclose screens of the Greenway aisle at Tiverton, brought to Powderham circa 1820. An inscription on the last panel of the south side, dated 1853, records that the upper part of the screen was completed by James William Fraser as a thankoffering during his temporary residence at Powderham Castle. The painted wainscot panels attached to the screen are not original to it. A western screen in the tower arch is partly medieval. Four-bay parclose screens flanking the Courtenay pew and organ chamber are largely 19th-century work incorporating some medieval tracery.

The chancel contains stone gabled three-tier frames with crockets and finials mounted above earlier commandment boards, a 19th-century timber altar, and a two-tier cinquefoil-headed piscina. Notable choir stalls include rear stalls in a 17th-century collegiate style with poppyhead finials. The Courtenay family pew to the north of the choir retains circa late 19th-century padded leather button-back seats.

The former Courtenay chapel on the south side, now largely occupied by the organ, features good tiling by W. Godwin of Hereford and a life-size white marble effigy of Elizabeth, Countess of Devon (died 1867), by Stephens, resting on a stone chest decorated with armorial bearings.

The nave contains a late 19th-century open timber drum pulpit, an octagonal font with a carved bowl (either designed or recut in the 19th century) on a thick stem with a probably 18th-century font cover. A set of late 19th-century benches with wide square-headed ends carved with tracery furnishes the nave. Sculptured Royal Arms surmount the south door, fixed above an earlier painted example. The chamfered doorway to the former rood loft stair turret survives one bay west of the present screen position. A painting by Cosway, formerly part of a reredos, hangs on the north wall, and sculptured figures of Moses and Aaron on the tower screen may also originate from an earlier reredos.

Monuments

A circa early 14th-century effigy of a lady beneath an ogee arch, in unusually good preservation, occupies the north wall of the chancel. The figure wears a square-headed headdress with the head supported by angels and feet resting on a dog with an ornamented collar. A finely carved stone canopied tomb on the south side of the chancel is inset with a brass foliated cross and brass plaques to Courtenay family members fixed to its base. This monument is said by Cresswell to copy the medieval Courtenay tomb at Colyton, though Bond and Camm record that it incorporates ornamental stone screenwork removed from Tiverton church in the early 19th century.

Glass

Fifteenth-century fragments collected in a north aisle window by Drake of Exeter in 1906. The east window of the south aisle commemorates T.P. Courtenay and was erected about 1844, designed by Wailes. The southernmost south aisle window is high-quality work by Clayton and Bell dating from circa 1870. The east window of the Courtenay family pew is by Willement, and the north window by Beer of Exeter bears a memorial date of 1843. Two south aisle windows contain quarry glass by Drake of Exeter. A north aisle window with inscriptions on tin panels in the lower lights, circa 1898 by Drake of Exeter, commemorates the 13th Earl, his wife, and son.