Monument record CLA 023 - Church of St Peter & St Paul

St Peter's and St Paul's church, Clare, is situated in the E of the parish, in the village. There is no record of a church here in the Domesday book. It is a random flint church with ashlar dressing, consisting of chancel, nave, N & S aisles, N vestry, N & S porches, S chapel and W tower. The tower is C13 and the upper part is C15. The S porch is circa 1380, with a groin vaulted chamber above and a vaulted bone house or ossuary beneath. N porch is later. In circa 1460 the nave and chancel were rebuilt and the N & S aisles were widened, The clustered shafts of the C13 columns were re-used, with C15 base and caps. The chancel arch is flanked by two stone staircases to the former roodloft and the towers are carried up above the roof terminating with crocketed pinnacles. The N & S doors are C16, carved and traceried. The N door has an ogee headed wicket within the main door. The S door has a chapel adjoining on the E side with the vaulted bone house continued beneath it. There is heraldic glass in the E window of 1617. Part of the C15 rood screen has fine cresting. In the S aisle, above the arch to the S chapel there is an interesting Jacobean gallery. The stalls are C17 with parts of the pew end of C15 poppy-head work incorporated. There is a fine early C16 brass eagle lectern and a C15 octagonal font. Above the S porch there is a 1790 sun dial (S1).
For church guides see parish file.
For C14 seal of Pope Innocent VI (1352-1362) from churchyard see CLA 017.