Weight: 1726 lbs Diameter: 44.5" Bell 1 of 6
Founded by John Darbie 1680
Dove Bell ID: 3574 Tower ID: 13614 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Ipswich: St Clement
Overview
Grid reference: TM 168 442
The majority of the church is fifteenth-century, but the base of the tower seems to be earlier and the whole building received at least one thorough Victorian restoration; the chancel was entirely rebuilt in 1860.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
West tower, six-bay nave with north and south aisles and clerestory. The south aisle has a south porch and has been extended westward one further bay to embrace the tower. The chancel has a north chamber for organ and vestry.
Description of Archaeology and History
The majority of the church is fifteenth-century, but the base of the tower seems to be earlier and the whole building received at least one thorough Victorian restoration; the chancel was entirely rebuilt in 1860.
Exterior Description
The west tower is of common East Anglian type, rather more austere than some in its lack of anything but the simplest parapet and most rudimentary pinnacles or any flushwork decoration. It is of four unequal stages with diagonal buttresses at the western angles and buttresses parallel with the nave walls at the eastern angles. The stair turret for access to the upper levels rises at the north-east corner and terminates at the level of the second stage. The ground stage has a small west door way with a two-centred arch of two simple orders, and a houdmould with returned stops. The second stage has a small lance light in the west face and the stage above, which houses a clock, has a rectangular opening in the west face enclosing tracery which incorporates the anchor, symbol of St. Clement, Bishop of Rome c.AD 90 who was drowned in exile in the Black Sea by having an anchor tied round his neck and thus became the patron saint of seafarers. The southern opening is of late date, adapted to a moulded circle for the clock face. The clock face on the north is, however, more typical of 1884, the date of the present clock, being on iron skeleton dial with Roman numerals. The east wall at this level is blind. The topmost stage of the tower contains six bells, and by this level the buttresses have died away. It is further distinguished from the other stages by a narrow stringcourse. In each face is a Perpendicular three light bell-opening with stopped main lights and panel tracery. Above that on the east face is a large swelling of the flint facing which is liable to fall into the nave roof at any time. The parapet has a virtually invisible decoration of shields in panels carved in relief.
The body of the church is also straightforward. The six bays of the nave are matched by six-bay aisles, each bay with a three-light window and divided from its neighbour by a buttress of two stages. In the west bay of the north aisle is a simple two-centred arched doorway and in the corresponding position in the south sides is a porch with an entirely renewed outer doorway with moulded two-centred arch and a pair of nook-shafts. The south sisle has at some time been extended westward by one bay to embrace the lower stage of the tower, this being done to provide an adequate baptistery. Since the font steps seem to be of about the same date as the re-roofing of the nave (unknown, c.1840) this extension seems to fit that also. Above the aisle roofs are ranged twelve clerestory windows two to each aisle bay, each of two ogee lights with panel tracery. The wall surface between each window is decorated with flint flushwork in two tiers of traceried panels above and below the stringcourse which forms the hood to each window and runs horizontally between them.
The chancel was rebuilt in 1860 in a slightly earlier style then the nave, with a wide five-light east window incorporating in the tracery a wheel containing an angular Star of David. On the north side, as the south aisle had been prolonged westward the north aisle is extended eastward to form a vestry; this was quite simply done by replacing the east window of the aisle twenty feet further east since the north wall is completely windowless, only a small doorway and a pair of gargoyles breaking the surface. The south chancel wall has two sharply pointed two-light windows with spiky Decorated tracery, the moulded bars of which have remained for over a hundred years remarkably unweathered.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
c.1950
East window: The Ascension, c.1950 by Abbot and Company, Lancaster.
Stained Glass
c.1891
South chancel I: The Nativity and The Annunciation.
Stained Glass
1880
South aisle east: The Presentation in the Temple.
Stained Glass
1900
South aisle II: The Good Shepherd, by I. and W. Ide, London, 1900 in Munich style.
Stained Glass
c.1882
North aisle I: The Transfiguration.
Interior
Interior Description
The interior of the church is spacious, the continuing rhythm of the twelve clerestory windows emphasising the length and comparative narrowness of the nave. The five western bays have quatrefoil pillars with fillets up the edges and spurs in the diagonal returns, and these carry moulded arches. The eastern bay also has a moulded arch but is marked off from the rest by a slender pier with half a quatrefoil pier to east and west, suggesting the hint of a transept. It is also worth noting that ten of the clerestory windows have hollow-moulded rere-arches but that the two above each of these eastern arches have plain reveals. There is the further feature of a blocked doorway leading into the eastern bay of the south aisle, and to the west of it, an ogee-headed piscina with a square drain suggesting that the eastern bay may have been a chantry chapel, with the piscina surviving from an altar of a side chapel occupying the remaining five bays of the aisle. The tower arch at the west end of the nave has an arch of three chamfered orders which die into the plain responds. On the wall above is a magnificent Royal Arms of Charles II flanked by two texts on uncommonly flamboyant ribands of metal. The nave roof, with tie-beams and ogee-headed arcading above separating bays of rectangular plastered panels, looks to belong to a restoration of c.1840.
There is no chancel arch, but the chancel roof being lower than the nave, the intervening space is filled by boarding also painted with texts. The five-bay roof of the chancel is carried on big corbels, those at the position of a chancel arch coming down lower on wall-posts and being carried on moulded corbels even more massive than the others. On the north side is an arch to the organ chamber entirely filled by a row of diapason pipes (the chamber also opens to the north aisle over a part-panelled and part-glazed screen) and beyond is a small doorway leading to the vestry. The chancel is lit chiefly by two windows in the south wall and the east window is filled with post War glass. The floor between the choirstalls is laid with encaustic tiles but within the communionrails the sanctuary is paved with white marble squares with black diamonds at the intersections, an uncommon style for 1860. The reredos of that date (which was simple stone arcading) has been superseded by an oak reredos which is a First World War memorial, flanked by red curtains.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
1860
The altar is of oak.
Reredos
c.1920
The reredos dates from c.1920 and is a memorial to the First World War; it is in pale oak, and consists of panels with traceried tops in the Perpendicular style of the time; the vine trail border to the frame is slightly Bodleyesque style.
Pulpit
c.1860
The pulpit is also of oak, hexagonal with bold traccry on each panel and roll-moulded uprights.
Lectern
1899
The lectern is a small brass eagle.
Font (object)
The font is a good example of a recurring East Anglian Perpendicular type, the stem with wild men and lions alternately against it and the bowl with eight panels carved with the symbols of the Evangelists alternating with demi-angels carrying shields. It now stands on three nineteenth-century steps but the cover, kept nearby, is surely eighteenth-century, with the use of down-coming fruits as crockets instead of upcurving leaves. Each rib also ends in a Georgian scroll beneath the foliated finial.
Organ (object)
The organ is a two manual instrument without a maker's plate, with tracker action and nineteen speaking stops.
Pew (object)
c.1840
Of oak with tall poppyheads on the ends towards the middle aisle. The front desk is lower with small lions couchant on the tops of the uprights.
Stall
1860
Of oak, with arcaded fronts and spiky poppyheads over traceried ends.
Rail
The communion rails are of oak, with arcading which resembles the stall fronts; the uprights, oddly, rise above the rail and are gabletted.
Bells
Weight: 612 lbs Diameter: 29" Bell 2 of 6
Founded by John Darbie 1660
Dove Bell ID: 26162 Tower ID: 13614 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Weight: 616 lbs Diameter: 30.5" Bell 3 of 6
Founded by John Darbie 1660
Dove Bell ID: 26163 Tower ID: 13614 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Weight: 784 lbs Diameter: 32.5" Bell 4 of 6
Founded by John Darbie 1660
Dove Bell ID: 26164 Tower ID: 13614 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Weight: 967 lbs Diameter: 35" Bell 5 of 6
Founded by John Darbie 1660
Dove Bell ID: 26165 Tower ID: 13614 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Weight: 1239 lbs Diameter: 39" Bell 6 of 6
Founded by John Darbie 1660
Dove Bell ID: 26166 Tower ID: 13614 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: TM 168 442
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | N/A |
| Solar Thermal Panels | N/A |
| Biomass | N/A |
| Wind Turbine | N/A |
| Air Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ev Charging | N/A |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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