Patrick Comerford
In recent weeks, I have been walking around the St Clement’s area, just east of central Oxford, and I have written about two of the pubs, the Port Mahon and Oranges and Lemons, as well as Saint Ignatius Chapel, the first post-Reformation Roman Catholic place of worship in Oxford, which I was discussing yesterday (18 October 2025).
Saint Ignatius is also associated with John Henry Newman (1801-1890). But for two years Newman was a curate in Saint Clement’s parish, and he was one of the key figures for raising a new Saint Clement’s Church, built in the 1820s and the first church in Oxford built on a new site since the Middle Ages.
Despite these links with Newman, who became a leading figure in the Tractarian or Oxford Movement and was later one of the most prominent Roman Catholics thinker in England, Saint Clement’s Church is now, ironically, one of the prominent evangelical churches in Oxford.
The present church dates from the 1820s, but replaced a much older building that was demolished in 1829. Saint Clement’s Church originally stood at what is now the Plain roundabout, where the roads from London and Henley cross the River Cherwell at Magdalen Bridge. It served both the small community of Bruggeset (‘Bridge Settlement’) that surrounded it as well as the largely rural area that eventually became East Oxford.
The first written record mentioning the church was in 1122 when it was one of the royal chapels given to Saint Frideswide’s Priory by Henry I. One source thinks the church may have been built in connection with a Danish garrison sometime between 1016 and the 1050s. This would explain its location close to a bridge and its dedication to Saint Clement which was unusual at inland sites at this time.
Saint Clement’s was one of the royal chapels given to Saint Frideswide’s Priory by Henry I in 1122. The Abbot of Oseney afterwards claimed that Saint Clement’s belonged to his church of Sain George in Oxford Castle, but renounced those claims. The Abbot of Eynsham also claimed Saint Clement’s Church at one time.
Almost nothing is known of the appearance of the earliest church, but recent studies suggests a stone head now in the Ashmolean Museum may have originally been a brightly painted stone corbel from the 13th century church, suggesting a church that was rich in colour and carved stonework.
Funds were granted in 1323 to rebuild ‘the Church of Saint Clement beyond Petty Pont’ (Magdalen Bridge). From 1122 to ca 1534, clergy were presented to Saint Clement’s by Saint Frideswide’s Priory, and from the late 15th century the rectors were usually graduates.
Following the Tudor Reformation in the 1530s, the patronage passed briefly to Cardinal College, now Christ Church, Oxford. The patronage of Saint Clements’s has then held by the crown until the mid-19th century. In 1540 it was reported that the benefice had long been vacant and the parishioners without divine offices. Most of those instituted by the Crown were fellows of Oxford colleges.
During the Siege of Oxford (1644-1646) in the English Civil War, the church and parish were on the front line between the Parliamentarian forces on Headington Hill and the Royalists in the city. It was reported that ‘no parish suffered more severely’, with whole streets being demolished to facilitate the building of fortifications. Yet, the 17th century Black Horse Inn and the church were among the few buildings to survive.
Later rectors included Humphrey Prideaux (1679-1682), later Dean of Lincoln; Robert Harsnett (1682-1696), a nonjuror dismissed for not swearing allegiance to William and Mary; and John Conybeare (1724-1734 ), later Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and Bishop of Bristol.
John Peshall, writing in 1773, describes a church composed of one aisle 13 yards long (exclusive of a chancel) and six yards and 20 inches broad. There were galleries in the north-east and west side and small capped tiled tower with three bells. The churchyard was extended in 1781, and the capped tower was replaced by a square tower in 1816.
With slum clearances in Oxford in the early 1800s, St Clement’s expanded rapidly, with over 300 new houses were built between 1821 and 1824. The old church, with seating for 250, became too small, and plans was drawn up to build a new church on a new site.
, The rector at the time, the Revd John Gutch (1746-1831), the editor of Anthony Wood's History of Oxford University was by then approaching his 80s; he was also chaplain of All Souls College and still holding on as the Registrar of Oxford University. A curate was needed to help him to raise money for a new church.
John Henry Newman, later Cardinal Newman and then Saint John Henry Newman, was the curate in 1824-1826. Although Newman was only at Saint Clement’s for two years, he had an enormous impact on the parish. He visited every home in the parish, started a Sunday school and preached regularly to a packed church. Some suspected him of being a Methodist, but others were happy that at last they had ‘a proper minister’.
Newman added a gallery to accommodate a new Sunday school in 1825, and his friend and later a fellow Tractarian Edward Pusey (1800-1882) provided a stove for the children.
Thanks to Newman’s fundraising, a new church was built by John Hudson of Oxford in 1825-1828 on land in Hacklingcroft Meadow, given by Sir Joseph Lock (1760-1844), a local banker and goldsmith. The subscribers to the new building included Keble, Pusey, Heber and Peel.
Initially, a design along the lines of Salisbury Cathedral or a Grecian temple was suggested. But the parish settled on an Anglo-Norman design for reasons of cost.
The architect was Daniel Robertson, who also designed the Clarendon Press buildings on Walton Street. Saint Clement’s is an early example of the Anglo-Norman or Romanesque Revival style. It has been described ‘as an interesting example of an abortive Romanesque revival’. It did not appeal to contemporary taste, and one critic called it ‘the boiled rabbit’. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner has described it as ‘patently Georgian Norman’.
Robertson planned the new church could seat up to 1,024 people, and the site was chosen in the hope that new housing would expand along Marston Lane, now Marston Road. The original plans placed the church on Marston Lane, but it was moved to its current location as part of a revised plan, subsequently abandoned, to build streets and houses in the form of a square.
Saint Clement’s was the first church in Oxford built on a new site since the Middle Ages. The foundation stone was laid in 1825 by the vice-chancellor of Oxford University, Richard Jenkyns (1782-1854), later Dean of Wells, and the church was consecrated on 14 June 1828.
An unforeseen consequence, however, was that Saint Clement’s did not automatically become the parish church when it was consecrated. This was not realised at the time, and a special Act of Parliament had to be passed in 1836 to ensure the legality of all the marriages in the new church.
Although I was unable to see the inside of Saint Clement’s, I understand the east window (geographical north) shows 10 scenes from the life of Christ. It was commissioned in 1846 and is the work of Isaac Hugh Russell, who lived and worked in St Clement’s. The four north windows (geographical west) depict scenes on the theme of faith. They were made in memory of James Morrell (1810-1863) by A and WH O’Connor for Saint Martin’s Church, Carfax in 1865, and were moved to Saint Clement’s in 1896, when Saint Martin’s was demolished.
The ‘Seven Churches’ window (1908) in the north-west corner was given by Morrell family and is based on the letters to the Seven Churches of Asia (see Revelation 1: 12 to 3: 22). It was designed by Powell & Sons of Whitefriars Glassworks, London, who were closely associated with William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement.
The interior had a major refurbishment in the 1870s. The original Georgian box-pews and benches were replaced in 1871 by ‘Neo-Norman’ pews, arranged in four blocks divided by a newly tiled nave and two newly positioned side aisles. The West Gallery was taken down in 1876.
The refurbishment was carried out by Edward George Bruton (1826-1899), an Oxford-based architect who specialised in church commissions in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and were largely funded by the Morrell brewing family of Headington Hill Hall.
Saint Clement’s first organ was bought in 1846 and installed in the west gallery. It was moved to the south-east corner of the church next to the chancel in 1876 when the gallery was demolished.
A new organ was built by Martin and Coate in 1897-1899, and the old organ was sold to Saint Paul’s Church, Walton Street, later Freud’s nightclub. The new organ was first used at the service for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897, and was rebuilt by Nicholson’s of Worcester in 1952.
The patronage passed to a series of trustees belonging to the evangelical tradition. With a radical change in liturgical style, the organ fell into disuse in the late 20th century and was removed in early 2020. Many of the pipes were installed at the Basilica of Saint Dominic in Valletta, Malta, earlier this year (2025).
Saint Clement’s has three bells, all brought from the old church in the 1820s. One was cast in the 13th century and is the oldest bell in Oxford.
At first, the churchyard at the new church was small, but the Morrell family added 556 sq m of land in 1879, and a further 0.4 ha in 1920, partly to provide a setting for a war memorial erected in 1921.
The old churchyard at the Plain was still in use until the 1870s and it was taken over by the City Council in 1939. The last traces of the old churchyard were destroyed in 1950, when a roundabout was made on the Plain.
The planting scheme of limes along the drive continues into Headington Hill Park where they lined the carriageway up to Headington Hill Hall.
Saint Clement’s was reordered several times in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with the addition of a crèche and kitchen, a dais in the chancel area and disabled access. The organ and several pews were removed in 2020-2022 to create a different layout.
Saint Clement’s Church is linked to two charities, both chaired by the rector. The Dawson Trust or Dawson’s Charity, established in 1521, owns property in St Clement’s used to relieve poverty and to maintain the church. The Parochial Charities of Saint Clement Oxford was formed in 1958 and recently merged with Dawson’s Charity. It was formed through the consolidation of three earlier charities, including John Pyke’s Charity and William James’s Charity.
Saint Clement’s Mission Hall at 57A St Clement’s was designed by HW Moore and built in 1887-1891. St Clement’s Community Property, formerly St Clement’s Parish Property (1903-2021), owns and maintains a small number of properties including Saint Clement’s Centre, Cross Street, and the Old Mission Hall and former Victoria Café at the corner of St Clement’s Street and Boulter Street.
The parish bought a former Baptist chapel in George Street (now Cave Street) in 1839 and converted it into schools that later moved to Bath Street.
• Sunday services at Saint Clements’s are at10:30, with ‘All-Age Worship’ on the first Sunday, Holy Communion on the second and fourth Sundays and Morning Worship on the third and fifth Sundays, and an informal service at 18:30, with Communion on the first and third Sundays. The staff includes the Revd Mark Hay, who has been the Rector since April 2024, and the Assistant Curates, the Revd Dr Joanna Tarassenko and the Revd Dr Oliver Wright.
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