St Clement's Church is an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church, in the village of

Old Romney Old Romney is a village and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. The village, as its name suggests, is the original site of the settlement, and is situated two miles (3.2 km) inland from New Romney. It lies o ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The church is dedicated to Saint Clement, a successor to Saint Peter at Rome.Anne Roper. ''The Gift of the Sea: Romney Marsh''. Birlings (Kent) Ltd. 2nd edition 1988. Pages 84–88. It is built on an artificial mound to protect it from floodwater. It is thought the original church was built in the 8th century. In the 11th or 12th century the

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

church was replaced by an early

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

church, aisleless and with a square-ended

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

. It was enlarged in the 13th century. The present building, mostly of the 13th century, has a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and chancel, and there are north and south chapels. There is a small tower, with south-east and south-west buttresses, in the south-west corner, and a north porch.

Interior

The

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in chu ...

s in the nave are of the 18th century. At the west end is a gallery, of late 18th century, supported by four

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

columns. There are Georgian wooden panels showing texts, on the walls of the nave. The font, in the south-west, is of the

Decorated period English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

, about 1300. It is square, and is supported by a central octagonal pillar; at each corner is a column with a carved capital. In the chancel of the north chapel is a medieval altar stone, or ''mensa''. This was found, during the renovation of the late 1960s, in the ground outside the church near the porch, and was originally thought to be a memorial slab.

Chancel

Over the chancel arch is the

Royal Arms of England The royal arms of England are the Coat of arms, arms first adopted in a fixed form at the start of the age of heraldry (circa 1200) as Armorial of the House of Plantagenet, personal arms by the House of Plantagenet, Plantagenet kings who ruled ...

, of 1800 (including the ''

Fleur-de-lys The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...

'', omitted in later Royal Arms). The altar rails are of the early 18th century. There are 17th-century wooden panels behind the altar showing the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the Commandments. A stone slab to the memory of John Deffray is in the middle of the chancel floor. Deffray, a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

, born in France in 1661, was Rector of St Clements from 1690 to his death in 1738. The slab bears his French coat of arms."St Clement, Old Romney"
theromneymarsh.net. Retrieved 30 October 2019.

Renovation

In 1929 the panelling round the chancel arch, of about 1788, was removed; this revealed a rood staircase doorway, and two

hagioscope A hagioscope (from Gr. ''άγιος'', holy, and ''σκοπεῖν'', to see) or squint is an architectural term denoting a small splayed opening or tunnel at seated eye-level, through an internal masonry dividing wall of a church in an obliq ...

s between nave and chancel. The plaster ceiling of the chancel was removed, revealing the rafters. In 1959 there was renovation by Anthony Swaine, a Canterbury architect. The east face of the tower was rebuilt and some timber was replaced. The roof over the nave and south aisle was repaired. Renovation ceased when the money available was exhausted. The church was used for location scenes in the film '' Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow'' (1963); for this the film company repainted the box pews and the gallery, and repaired the stairway to the gallery. The film company left money for further repairs to be done, and, also supported by other grants, renovation was continued; it was completed in 1968.

Churchyard

The grave of the film-maker

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

(1942–1994) is in the churchyard.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Romney, St Clement's Church Grade I listed churches in Kent Church of England church buildings in Kent Diocese of Canterbury