Patrick Comerford
During our weekend visit to York, we were staying off Scarcroft Road, south-west of the city centre and close to Saint Clement’s Church, at the junction of Scarcroft Road and Nunthorpe Road.
I have stayed here a number of times in recent years, and thought last weekend it would be interesting to see the church as a Grade II listed building, with its Victorian east window by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, and the church furniture by Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson, with his trademark carved mice.
The parish website says Sunday services at Saint Clement’s are at 9 am, and so arrived at the church before 8:45, took photographs of the exterior, and hung around until 9 am. No-one came, the doors remained locked, and I headed into the city centre for the Sunng Eucharist at Saint Olave's Church, Marygate.
Saint Clement’s is over 150 years old and was built in 1872-1874. But the story of the church and the parish dates back to a mediaeval church dedicated to Saint Clement that stood outside the city walls and that which gave its name to the suburb of Clementhorpe.
The mediaeval parish of Saint Clement, covering the area bounded by the city wall to the north, the River Ouse to the east, Knavesmire to the west and extending to Bishopthorpe to the south.
The district beside the city wall was known as Clementhorpe in 1070 and was probably named after the church. A church was a part of the Benedictine nunnery of Saint Clement 60 years later. The nunnery was founded by Archbishop Thurstan of York in 1130 and the church served both as the priory church and as the parish church for local people.
Saint Clement’s was the first monastic establishment in the North of England after the Norman Conquest. Clementhorpe began as a hamlet outside the city and became a considerable village.
At the dissolution of the monastic houses during the Tudor Reformation, Saint Clement’s Priory was the first to suffer under the Suppression Act of 1536, and was surrendered on 31 August 1536.
The priory church avoided destruction, becoming a parish church. However, it fell into ruin because of a falling population, and in 1585 the parish was united with Saint Mary, Bishophill Senior within the Walls.
After that, Saint Clement’s Church fell into ruin. The last stones from the church and priory buildings were removed in 1745 and were used to repair the walls.
The 19th century brought much development and building in the area, and by the end of the century a new church had been built on Scarcroft Road as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary and dedicated to Saint Clement.
Dove Street, Swann Street and Dale Street were built between 1823 and 1830, and the lower portion of Nunnery Lane as well as Saint Clement’s Place were built up with houses. The residents of the new district called for an opening through the City Wall to give them access to Bishophill and their parish church, Saint Mary. In response, a subway was made through the mound under the wall in 1838, and this was replaced by the present Victoria Bar, opened in 1840.
Apart from the mansions of Nunthorpe and Middlethorpe the parish was truly local, with windmills on the highest ridge running through its centre – the Nunmill at one end and the Mount Mill at the other.
The arrival of the railway in 1839 and the development of the rail network created a demand for houses in the area. This demand increased when the Terry’s chocolate factory was built in 1864. The industrial growth in the area brought high density housing to the two areas of Clementhorpe and the area bounded by Nunnery Lane, the lower end of Bishopthorpe Road and Nunthorpe Road.
Soon after his appointment as the last rector of the united parishes in 1871, Canon George Marsham Argles saw the urgent need for a separate church for the densely populated areas and the anticipated further developments to the south.
The population of the parish of Saint Mary, Bishophill Senior, in the Clementhorpe Road and Bishopthorpe Road area, had grown from 1,227 in 1851 to 4,017 in the early 1870s, making it the parish with the fastest growing population in York.
The foundation stone of Saint Clement’s Church was laid on 16 October 1872, the new church was built in 1872-1874, and a vestry was added in 1880.
The church was designed by the York-based architects JB and W Atkinson. The brothers John Bownas Atkinson (1807-1874) and William Atkinson (1811-1886) were sons of the architect Peter Atkinson. JB Atkinson went into partnership with his father in 1831. That partnership was dissolved in 1833, but in 1837 JB Atkinson formed a partnership with his brother William. JB Atkinson was the first City Surveyor of York, from 1850 to 1854.
The Atkinson brothers designed a large number of buildings, mainly in Yorkshire. The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner later described them as ‘producing many accomplished Classical buildings and a few less-assured Gothic churches’.
Saint Clement’s Church is built of red brick, with stone dressings and plinth and dark brick bands. It has angled buttresses, and a steep slate roof covering both the nave and chancel. The north corner of the gable is topped with a small, projecting octagonal bellcote with a short slated octagonal spire.
The south façade has a projecting gabled porch to the left with double plank doors and ornate iron hinges in a moulded and banded pointed arch. The north façade has a similar window arrangement to the south façade, but with a projecting gabled porch to the right.
The windows are lancets, those at the east and west ends having three lights, with two-light windows either side. The east end has a central tall three-light pointed arch window flanked by similar two-light windows, all with reticulated tracery.
Inside the church, I understand, the arcades are of brick, with stone piers and detailed stone capitals. There is a circular stone font, and an octagonal stone pulpit.
The stained glass in the east window was designed in 1875 by the Belgian stained glass painter Jean-Baptiste Capronnier (1814-1891).
The church has a tiled floor, a wooden roof and wooden pews. The reredos is by a Mr Thrupp in a frame by GW Milburn. The choir stalls and screen arlater, dating from the mid-20th and designed by Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson (1876-1955), who featured a carved mouse on almost every piece of his work.
Thompson was part of the 1920s revival of craftsmanship, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement led by William Morris, John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle. It is said his mouse motif came about accidentally in 1919 following a conversation about ‘being as poor as a church mouse’. His work in Ireland includes the lectern and railings in Saint Nicholas Church, Adare, Co Limerick.
Saint Clement’s was given its own parish area in 1876. A vestry was added to the church in 1880.
Meanwhile, Saint Mary Bishophill Senior was demolished in 1963. Many of its fixtures were relocated to Saint Clement’s Church, including monuments, charity boards and two boards that record the terms of the architect John Carr as Lord Mayor of York, in 1770 and 1785.
• Saint Clement’s Church was Grade II listed in 2000. The Revd Simon Bray is priest-in-charge of the Bishopthorpe Road parishes, including Saint Clement’s Church, Scarcroft Road; Saint Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, South Bank, near York racecourse; and Saint Andrew’s Church, Bishopthorpe. The parish website says Sunday services at Saint Clement’s are at 9 am and are based on Morning Prayer most weeks, with the Eucharist on the first Sunday of the month.
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