Description

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.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17555524

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

• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)