"The church of ST. CLEMENT, OUTWELL, consists of chancel, north and south chapels, clerestoried nave, aisles, north chapel in the form of a transept, south porch, and west tower. There was a church on the site in the 13th century, of which the only visible remains are the first three stages of the tower. In the 14th century the present arcades were built and the aisles assumed their existing form. In the second half of the 15th century there was an extensive scheme of rebuilding and enlargement which was not completed until about 1520, the north chancel chapel being approximately of this date. In 1863 the church was severely restored, the east end of the chancel being practically rebuilt, largely with the old materials, and new roofs provided for the chancel and north aisle. The walls were replastered, and this must have involved the destruction of at least one mural painting which was noted by Blomefield in the middle of the 18th century. The materials are Barnack and rag stone plastered, except the north nave chapel which is of brick with stone dressings. The roofs of the chancel, nave, south aisle, north nave chapel, and porch are slated, and the rest leaded. There are embattled parapets throughout, except to the north aisle.
The chancel has a fine five-light east window with embattled transom, with cinquefoiled heads above and below the transom and cinquefoiled tracery. There are angle buttresses with three set-offs. The plinth has a band of quatrefoils enclosing blank shields. The chancel extends beyond the chapels and has a north and south window of three lights with rectilinear tracery; the latter has a transom in the main lights and also in the tracery. There are crocketed angle pinnacles which have been renewed. The south window has a lowered sill to serve as sedilia. There is a four-centred arch opening to each chapel, the south with continuous mouldings and the north with demi-angels as caps. The lofty chancel arch is two-centred and of two orders with moulded caps. The chancel roof is modern, of hammerbeam construction; the 15th-century stone corbels remain and consist of demi-angels bearing shields.
The north chapel, which from the evidence of the heraldry of its roof corbels must have been erected in the first quarter of the 16th century, has an east window of six lights with an embattled transom and a fourcentred head with hood-mould, on either side of which are much-worn figures under canopies. There is a diagonal buttress with three set-offs at the north-east angle, and in the north wall are two three-light windows with embattled transoms and four-centred heads. The chapel opens to the aisle by a truncated fourcentred arch with a moulded cap having a shield on the north, but no respond. Near this arch on the south side are remains of the stairs which formerly led to the rood loft. There is a four-centred doorway leading to the north nave chapel with square hood-mould terminating in carved heads; it is set at an angle in the north-west corner. There is a piscina with cinquefoiled head in the south wall. The roof is of cambered beam construction with moulded principals and purlins, and demi-angels bearing shields. The stone roof corbels have shields charged with the arms of Fincham, Haultoft, and Derham, which indicates that the chapel was built by John Fincham, who married Elizabeth daughter and heiress of Thomas Derham, and Alice his wife, who was daughter and coheiress of Gilbert Haultoft. John Fincham died in 1527.
The south chapel has a five-light east window with embattled transom and cinquefoiled main lights and three rows of tracery lights. There are angle buttresses with three set-offs having quatrefoils enclosing blank shields on the faces. The south window has six lights with an embattled transom and four-centred head. There is a tomb recess of the 14th century in the south wall with elaborate cusping to the arch and angle shafts. The roof is of hammerbeam construction with full-length angels as hammers on the south and demiangels on the south wall-plate; the hammers on the north are moulded and formerly terminated in shields. The wall-plate on this side has an elaborate carved trail. There are unusually short wall-posts.
The nave has arcades of five bays with two-centred arches of two orders and octagonal piers with moulded caps and bases; it belongs to the first half of the 14th century. There are five clerestory windows on each side, of three lights with cinquefoiled heads and hoodmoulds terminating in human heads. There are gargoyles on either side. Over the chancel arch is a three-light window with cinquefoiled heads. The clerestory is a 15th-century addition. The lofty tower arch is of two orders, the outer with continuous mouldings and the inner with demi-angels as caps. The roof is a fine example of the Marshland type with alternate hammerbeams and tiebeams having queen-posts, the spandrels have pierced tracery, and there are demi-angels on the tiebeams, hammerbeams, and wall-plates. The wall-posts have full-length figures under canopies and there are carved stone corbels.
The north aisle has two lateral windows of three lights with cinquefoiled heads, of the 15th century, and a similar window at the west end. There is a fourcentred arch from the aisle to the north nave chapel, with moulded caps and bases. The north doorway has a continuous chamfer and is of the 15th century. There are two buttresses with two set-offs, of the same period. The roof is modern.
The north chapel is set at right angles to the aisle. It has two diagonal buttresses with four set-offs. The east window is of three lights, the centre light trefoilheaded and the others uncusped. The north window has four uncusped lights under a depressed head, and the west window is of three lights with cinquefoiled heads. The roof is of hammerbeam construction with shield-bearing angels on the hammers and wallposts.
The south aisle opens to the chapel by a late-15thcentury arch of two orders. To the east of the porch is a seven-light window with embattled transom and depressed head, probably early 16th century. West of the porch is a three-light 14th-century window, cinquefoiled with a quatrefoil above. The west window is of the 15th century and has four cinquefoiled main lights with rectilinear tracery in the head. The plinth has a band of quatrefoils enclosing blank shields, and the buttresses have three set-offs. The roof is similar to that of the chapel, but it retains the shields on the north hammerbeams, and only the western portion of the wall-plate has a carved trail.
The porch, which belongs to the 15th-century reconstruction, is of two bays with two-light windows on each side in the inner bay, and with a parvise. It has an octopartite vault with brick web and carved bosses. The outer arch is four-centred with moulded caps and chamfered bases to the responds. The inner doorway has a continuous chamfer. The parvise is approached by a newel stair at the north-west angle with a doorway in the aisle having a four-centred head. The parvise is lighted by windows on the east, west, and south, of two lights.
The tower is of four stages, the first three being of the second half of the 13th century and the belfry stage a century later. The west doorway and window are 15th-century insertions, the former having a fourcentred arch and continuous mouldings, and the latter being of four lights cinquefoiled with rectilinear tracery in the head. There are two blocked lancets on the north and south in the second stage. The third stage has windows of two lights with foliated circles in the head and shafts with moulded caps and bases as mullions and at the angles. The top stage is a 14thcentury addition having two-light windows with trefoiled heads. There is a plain parapet and crocketed pinnacles at the angles, and the tower is crowned by a leaded pyramidal cap, which replaces a lofty spire removed in 1753. There are angle buttresses with four set-offs. At the south-east corner is an octagonal stair turret reaching to the third stage; this is a 15thcentury addition and was formerly reached by a doorway in the south aisle, now blocked, with four-centred head and shields in the spandrels; the modern entrance is from the churchyard.
The fittings are important. The 15th-century font has a hexagonal bowl with two shallow cinquefoiled niches on each face and one on each face of the shaft. There is a fine eagle lectern of latten, also of the 15th century, and a massive iron-bound chest with seven locks. In the south aisle is a remarkable wooden alms box standing on a tall shaft, which dates from the beginning of the 17th century. Of the same period is the communion table now in the south chapel. There is a brass with inscription to Richard Quadryng, 1511, now on the wall of the north aisle; he is in armour of the period. In the same aisle is a mid-15th-century brass inscription to Margaret Haultoft, and in the south aisle is the matrix of a knight and lady. In the southeast corner of the south chapel is a Purbeck marble altar tomb with back-piece and small projecting canopy; on the north and west sides are quatrefoils containing shields, and on the back-piece is an alabaster tablet of later date commemorating Nicholas Beaupre and Margaret his wife, 1512. There is a shield with the arms of Beaupre impaling Fodryngaye. The tomb is apparently of this date, but the tablet is fifty years later and was probably inserted by his son Edmund, who is himself commemorated by an alabaster mural monument supported on the canopy of the altar tomb with his shield of arms. The south chapel is paved with black and white marble and in the west arch is an iron screen on a stone base, all 18th-century work. There is a considerable amount of early-16th-century painted glass. In the tracery of the east window of the chancel are portions of canopies, heads, and inscriptions. In the tracery of the east window of the south chapel are the following subjects: top row—(1) chalice and Host, (2) Deity seated and holding orb, (3) St. Faith, (4) Five Wounds; middle row—(1) fragments of canopies, (2) St. Olaf, (3) St. Edward the Martyr, (4) St. Walstan, (5) St. Martin, (6) St. Lawrence, (7) St. Stephen, (8) fragments; bottom row—(1) scroll, (2) hand holding cup, (3) shield of Ely, (4) Virgin and Child and two other figures, (5) St. Edward the Confessor, (6) fragments, (7) fragments, including shield of St. George, (8) part of female saint, (9) St. Ursula, (10) scroll. In the north-west window of the north chancel chapel is a large figure holding a covered cup, part of the Adoration of the Magi, which was almost complete when Blomefield visited the church in the middle of the 18th century; above is an angel holding a shield with Fincham quartering Haultoft.
The plate includes (i) a communion cup and cover paten without assay marks, but the former is inscribed 'the perishe of Outwell anno domini 1593'; (ii) a paten of silver without assay marks inscribed 'Outwell St. Clement'; (iii) a flagon of silver, 1652, inscribed 'This flagon belongs to the Parish of Outwell', and above these arms: per chevron argent and azure a crescent counterchanged, and for a crest an arm embowed mailed, the hand holding a tilting spear broken enfiled with a chaplet.
The tower contains six bells by Osborn and Arnold of St. Neots, 1778, the 4th recast by Dobson of Downham, 1827.
The registers begin in 1559 and are complete."
SOURCE - (
visit link)
Additional reading - (
visit link)