Skegness

No individual entry found for Skegness in the Domesday survey. Pevsner, Harris and Antram (1989) state that, other than the western tower, which is "C13 or a little later", the rest of this church "is latest Middle Ages", and do not indicate whether or not the font is included in this package. The entry for Skegness St Clemens' [Legacy System number: 404780] notes: "A church dedicated to St Clement is recorded in Skegness in the C13. Writing in the C16, Leland noted that that most of Skegness had been washed away by the sea in 1526 but that part of a church remained. Later C16 and C17 sources also suggest that the church was destroyed, and materials were salvaged to rebuild the church on a different site. The architectural evidence supports this, both the tower and the body of the church seem to be a single, C16 build incorporating considerable amounts of re-used stone. The church was restored in the C19, but fell into disrepair in the late C19 after St Matthew's church was opened in the new town centre. It was closed for a period in the early C20, and restored in the 1930s. Fine perpendicular font." The entry for Skegness new church in Historic England [Legacy System number: 404840] notes: "The old parish church of Skegness, St Clements, was well away from the resort developed in the C19. St Matthew's was begun to serve the newly developed town in 1879 [...] It was consecrated in 1880, but not completed until 1885 [...] Good C19 font in a Victorian High Gothic style with a richly carved arcade on detached shafts around a central core. The enormous and very fine font cover in a stylised Gothic idiom, now no longer over the font, is 1960s and was carved by a local man, Ruben Farmer, in memory of his parents." The Parish web site [www.skegness-anglican.org.uk] [accessed 11 March 2007] notes: The stone font is fifteenth century and is octagonal in shape and the bowl, with its support, are richly ornamented. Mrs F Rear provided a cover in memory of her two sons who gave their lives in World War II". Each side of the octagonal has a cusped panel with a blank shield in it; the underbowl has a graded chamfer; the stem of the base -the carving is very worn- appears to have an upper level with an arcade in which demi-figures may be discerned; there is a lower level below a shel-like moulding but the relief is too worn to identify the detail; the lower base splays in graded mouldings.