St Clement

Built in latter half of C12.

Chancel C13, altered at various stages

N chapel may also be C13

aisles added C14

nave rebuilt and N porch added C15.

mixed wall construction comprising knapped and unknapped flint, ragstone, ironstone, Caen stone, pebbles, brick and tile

Kent peg tile roofs.

PLAN: All that remains of the cruciform Norman plan is the central crossing tower with NW stair turret, carried on four arches.

EXTERIOR: Square Norman tower with three tiers of blind arcading

Norman windows to stair turret.

the Early-English style triple-lancets to the chancel however are entirely conjectural and replaced a C15 window.

Gabled porch, upper parts repaired in C16 or C17 brick.

Oak-panelled studded door with date 1655 and initials 'RRWH / WW' in stud lettering.

Shallow-pitched oak coffered roof, recently repainted and gilded, has carved bosses to junctions and paired angels with outstretched wings to ridge beam, an unusual feature in Kent more commonly associated with East Anglian churches.

Pulpit and pews are C19.

Carved Romanesque capitals with scallops, foliage, grotesque faces etc. Blind-arcaded frieze with decorated capitals on inner face of tower above arches.

Doorway to stair turret on NW angle of tower has late Saxon or early Norman tympanum with intricate low-relief carving of intersecting arcades with a stag

extrados with carved staggered voussoirs.

those to chapel and vestry with exposed rafters, mainly medieval in the case of the former.

Chancel has C15 oak choir stalls

ogee bench ends with poppyheads, cinquefoil-traceried panels to front, one misericord seat with carved shield.

N sanctuary wall has blocked lancet window, a large C15 squint with four-centred arch, drip-mould and carved spandrels, and an aumbry next to an arched doorway through to the NE vestry.

Altar to St Margaret's Chapel incorporates two medieval altar stones which had been used as tombstones, and has a gradus, or altar step.

Piscina also at E end of choir vestry with C14 cusped ogee head.

S aisle wall has a piscina, stoup, and doorway with a dripmould and carved spandrels.

Some medieval encaustic floor tiles survive as well as a variety of old flooring materials, and C19 encaustic tiles.

The church has many fittings and monuments of note.

Fine octagonal limestone font in N aisle, the faces bearing carved roses and heraldic emblems including the arms of ancient Sandwich and those of Archdeacon Robert Hallum, by whom it is believed the font was given c1406.

Notable monuments include that to Frances Rampston on S wall of chancel , of kneeling female figure set in aedicular niche, in marble, and Mary Hayward , with epitaph set within unusual cut brick aedicule.

Large, very worn medieval brass of male and (originally) wife under double canopy.

Many indents of brasses.

HISTORY: Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports, the chief harbour for the export of wool and one of England's most important naval bases until the harbour began to silt up in the C15.

The tower once had a spire, which was taken down in 1668 probably as a precautionary measure as the towers to St Peter's and St Mary's churches had both recently collapsed.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: A church of outstanding interest for its imposing Norman tower, which ranks among the most notable surviving examples nationally.

It also has major interest for its later phases, including the splendid nave arcades and angel-boss roof, a wealth of medieval features of various dates, and many monuments dating from the C17-C19.

Its context within the Cinque Port of Sandwich, one of England's least-altered walled medieval towns which has two other highly-graded medieval churches and a dense concentration of listed buildings, gives the church outstanding historic interest and group value.

The medieval and later churchyard walls are separately listed.