CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT

CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT, SWAN TERRACE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1286732
Date first listed:: 19-Jan-1951
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT
Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT, SWAN TERRACE

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Date:: 2000-08-30
Reference:: IOE01/02842/26
Rights:: © Peter Fuller. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1286732
Date first listed:: 19-Jan-1951
Date of most recent amendment:: 14-Sep-1976
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT
Statutory Address 1:: CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT, SWAN TERRACE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT, SWAN TERRACE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: East Sussex
District:: Hastings (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 82444 09626

Details

HASTINGS

757/7/129 SWAN TERRACE 19-JAN-51 CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT (Formerly listed as: CHURCH PASSAGE CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT)

GV II* Church. Sited in Hastings old town amongst timber-framed and brick houses. C.1380 rebuilt after the burning of Hastings in 1377 with C19 re-roofing, chancel and S porch.

MATERIALS: Sandstone rubble, the tower chequered with knapped flint and sandstone blocks; E wall also chequered; tiled roofs.

PLAN: Nave and chancel in one internally. The C19 chancel (an extension) has a lower roof and undercroft. 6-bay N and S aisles, SW tower. The W wall on the boundary of Croft Street, is at an oblique angle. S porch.

EXTERIOR: S aisle with gabled buttresses and a coped embattled parapet; 3-light windows, renewed in the C20, with Perpendicular style tracery. Late C19 ashlar porch with a shallow gabled parapet and severely-weathered outer doorway with a deep hollow chamfer and shafts. 4-light Perpendicular traceried style E window, heavily weathered but probably C19. The N aisle has two 3-light Perpendicular style traceried window; one square-headed 3-light window and a low-set one-light cinquefoil-headed window. The NW corner of the church skews to the N. The chancel has wide traceried late C19 traceried windows with segmental arched windows. Shallow stair projection to undercroft on the N side. Large, short tower (scaffolded at time of visit, 2002) with an embattled parapet, polygonal SW stair turret rising above the roof with an embattled parapet and low pyramidal tower. W doorway with a deep hollow chamfer, shafts, and shields carved in the spandrels. C19 plank W door with curly strap hinges. Large 4-light W window.

INTERIOR: 6-bay aisles, the arcades with 4 shafts and 4 hollows. Statue niches on the W faces of the penultimate E piers are said by Pevsner to mark the pre C19 chancel. Arches into the tower on the E and N sides have leaf motifs carved on the capitals. C19 ceiled wagon roofs to the nave/chancel and the aisles. The chancel wagon is canted with carved bosses. The chancel has a pretty C19 mosaic reredos in a stone frame; sedilia with painted mosaic to match. 1721 painted figures of Moses and Aaron by Roger Mortimer on the E wall of the S chancel chapel. Wall monument to John Collier, d.1760. 2-tier brass chandeliers, given in 1763. Fragments of a medieval screen at the W end of the church. C19 or recut font with octagonal stone bowl carved with symbols. Elegant pyramidal crocketted font cover. Nave benches with shouldered ends pierced with trefoils. Brass eternal light with high quality lettering commemorating the marriage of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal in this church in 1860, given by Rossetti's family. Stained glass in N and S chancel windows by Percy Bacon. One very fine C19 stained glass window in the S aisle. C20 E windows in chancel and S aisle by Philip Cole, head of Hastings Art College, one window in S aisle by his pupils (information from churchwardens).

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: gate piers with distinctive glazed lanterns with highly decorative ironwork; low stone walls with rounded copings and plain iron railings to the churchyard.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The Church of St Clements merits listing at a higher grade on account of its architectural and historic interest as a late medieval town church which is substantially intact. It also possesses some internal features of special note. Its stands at the heart of Hastings and has exceptional visual, community and religious interest.

SOURCES Pevsner, Sussex, 1965, 519. Verbal information from the Church Wardens.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 294078
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Nairn, I, The Buildings of England: Sussex, (1965), 519

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.