St Clements Church - Hastings
"St Clements" is the Saint of Seafarers and Iron workers.
There has been a St Clements in Hastings since before the Roman Conquest, and was thought to have been near the Anchor Public House in George Street, but it was washed away by the sea in 1287. This present church is built on Land given in 1286 by Alan the Cheesemonger and his wife Alice, but the original church on this sight was destroyed by the French during the 100 years war - that is the war of Joan of Arc, The Black Prince and the Battle of Agincourt.
The French raided Hastings in 1378 with 2,000 seamen in retaliation for a degradation of the Black Princes Army in Northern France. The church was rebuilt pretty quickly from 1380 onwards and is approx. in the perpendicular style of Gothic Architecture - the glazing bars are perpendicular - but it is not strictly in the perpendicular style, because as everybody went to church in those days the smallness of the land and the size of the congregation - it was like getting a pint into a half pint pot and so the Church Tower is not on the end of the Church but built over the body of the church and there is no Chancel Arch that normally separates the Priest and Choir from the congregation.
As well as being a Parish Church, it is also the Borough Church of Hastings and on special occasions like Mayor Making and other Civic Services, the Mayor and Corporation come to services here fully robed with the Magistrates and Town Clerks and on these occasions the Mayor sits here (with a cushion) and the Mace and the Staff of Office are placed on this bracket - The symbol of the Mayor and Corporations Authority to the crown. As well as being the Mayor, in a Coronation year, he is a Baron of the Cinque Ports (Norman French for 5 ports - Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, Sandwich) of which Dover is the only proper port today.
They had to find the Sovereign a Navy of 57 ships and crew in return for considerable privileges such as Local Democracy, Own Courts, Freedom of Taxation, Right to manage the Herring Fishing from Great Yarmouth during the Herring Season, and the Ceremonial privilege of carrying a canopy of 8 silver staves over the King and Queen at the Coronation.
At the Coronation of George III, afterwards they sold the canopy and the silver staves on which it was carried, and with Hastings share of the money they bought the above Chandelier and the Townsmen bought the other Chandelier.
The Cinque ports were at the height of their power in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
In 1140 they assisted the Portuguese in driving the Moors out of Portugal, the first Christian Bishop of Lisbon after the Moors were driven out was Gilbert de Hastings who was born at Winchelsea. In the 13th and 14th century they became so powerful and a law unto themselves and engaged in legalised Piracy. They were last in operation against the Spanish Armada where the Spanish lost 60 ships and 30,000 men and the English lost no ships and 100 men.
Queen Elizabeth I advisors decided that the defence of the South of England should not be left to armed merchantmen and so the defence of England was handed over to the Royal Navy which had been established by Queen Elizabeth’s father - Henry the VIII.
The bomb that fell on the Swan public House destroyed the windows of the church, and a little later a lady picked up a piece of glass after the bombing, that was in the shape a little angel, and it was incorporated into the window as shown - the only piece of medieval glass.
As a war memorial in 1947, Hastings School of Art made the window above the altar - It is the Holy Spirit, emanating from Jesus Christ on the people of Hastings, and they are all real people from this town.
A Farmer from Guestling, on a corn wagon with his son and one of the land girls, The Rector of this church the Rev Jack Mayfield, Nursing sister Richie, Tom ? the carpenter, who was also the local undertaker and he represents the rebuilding of Hastings after the war, then a Hastings family Mrs. Mitchell, the baby was called Linda and is now 48 years old, the boy is John the son of Manwaring Baines the curator of the museum, and then there is a soldier - unknown, sailor - Max Judge, son of the baker in High Street and an airman. The fisherman - Coxwain Curtis of the Lifeboat and the lady is Mrs. Philip Cole, the wife of the Head of the School of Art at that time.
