Description

TL 74 NE
18/57

CLARE
Parish Church of SS Peter & Paul

19.12.61

GV I

A random flint church with ashlar dressings. The lower part of the tower is
C13 and the upper part is of the C15. The south porch is circa 1380, with a
groin vaulted chamber above and a vaulted bone house or ossuary beneath. The
north porch is of a somewhat later date. In circa 1460 the nave and chancel
were rebuilt and the north and south aisles were widened. The clustered shafts
of the C13 columns were re-used, with C15 bases and caps. The chancel arch is
flanked by 2 stone staircases to the former rood loft and the towers are carried
up above the roof and are terminated by crocketted pinnacles. The north and
south doors are C16, carved and traceried. The north door has an ogee headed
wicket within the main door. The south door has a chapel adjoining on the east
side with the vaulted bone house continued beneath it. There is heraldic glass
in the east window of 1717 commemorating benefactors, Sir George Hunt Knight,
Sir John Higham, Sir Thomas Barnadiston, Sir Stephen Sonnes, Sir William Storton
and the Honourable Company of Haberdashers. Part of the C15 roof screen remains
in the south chancel aisle and there is a parclose screen with fine cresting.
In the south aisle, above the arch to the south chapel there isan interesting
Jacobean gallery. The stalls are C17 with parts of the pew ends of C15 poppy-head
work incorporated. There is a fine early C16 brass eagle lectern, also used
as a money box, supported on 3 collarer dogs. An early C15 octagonal font has
a traceried shaft. Above the south porch there is a 1790 sundial bearing the
motto "Go about your business."

The Parish Church of SS Peter and Paul with No 15 (The Vicarage), Wall to the
Vicarge, Nos 17 to 22 (consec), No 23 (Church Farmhouse), No 26 (The Ancient
House) and No 27 High Street form a group.
The church also forms a group with all the listed buildings in Church Street.

Listing NGR: TL7696445461

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Peter and St Paul's Church, Clare at Wikipedia
• St Peter and St Paul's Church, Clare official website
• Wikidata Q15979483

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living