A history of Stoke Climsland Church

In the Domesday Book of 1086 we read “The King has a manor called Climeston”. On 10th June 1265 Matthew de Celles was appointed the first Rector.

The present church is a reconstruction of an earlier one. The oldest parts now being the leaning pillars on the north side of the central aisle that date from 1321. Leaning because they have no foundations! The remainder of the main structure dates from the 15th century. The steps in the south wall are all that remains of a rood screen. The screen itself was removed in the time of Elizabeth I. The barrels rooves are 15th century, but the windows were all re-constructed or replaced in the late 19th century. The south wall of the sanctuary has been re-built and in the process the priest’s door, which can be seen on the outside of the church, was blocked.

The tower is late 15th century with the clock dated 1862. The tower has a peel of eight bells cast in 1771 and re-cast in 1953. The first organ was installed in the base of the tower in 1847 and moved to its present position in 1950. There are some 1,200 burials in the churchyard, the earliest gravestone 1696 of John Trehane and his wife Jane. No evidence remains of most graves on the south side of the church as these date from the 17th century when normally only a wooden board would have marked the grave of a commoner and people were not buried in a coffin but in a woollen cloth to help the cloth trade. In 2020 it was agreed to re-use a small part of this area of the churchyard in front of the porch to bury those who were prominent figures in the life of the church and parish or on the national stage. 

Part of the churchyard adjoining the road had a vestry house built on it. In the 1800’s it was used by villagers to dry their washing. Later it was a shop that was demolished in the 1950’s. There was then a plan to make some grand steps to the churchyard in this area but the rector at the time persuaded the Duchy to build a club as the village pub, The Ring 0’Bells, had closed.

A Faculty was granted in 2015 to totally refurbish the church as damp, peeling paintwork and rotten floorboards were becoming a serious problem. The Friends of the church ran the Whiteford music festival annually for a number of years and some funds were available from that to start renovation. Along with other donations work has now been able to start on damp-proofing the north wall of the church where the churchyard ground level is much higher than the interior floor level. Also the rotten and uneven floor in the chancel is being replaced by a new limestone floor with underfloor heating. The church will then be seeking further donations and grants to replace the nave floor in similar fashion and repair and re-paint the ceiling and walls.

The remaining interior refurbishment work could include a new kitchen with interior toilet facilities; a new room at ground floor level in the tower where the organ used to reside; and upgrades to the existing organ. The resulting nave and chancel floor area would become the largest flexible space in the village and an excellent community resource.