Clowne has many things from our ancient past - the old cross crowned by a ball in the middle of the village, and a church of 800 years with a variety of possessions.
The aisle-less church, though much renewed, has fragments of Norman England, including the doorway in the porch and the chancel arch (both with carved capitals), the priest's doorway, and the font. On a window-cill is a moulded stone which was the drain of the piscina used by Norman priests. The roof has some of its 14th century beams, a century older than the embattled tower.
Two extraordinary buttresses support the north wall, projecting ten feet at the base and climbing in steps until they reach the roof. On the chancel floor is a stone to William Inskip, a parson for 54 years buried here just before the Armada. He must have been here through the troubled period of the church in the reign of the four Tudors.
The road passing the church goes on to the delightful wooded dell of Markland Grips, with a stream running through the bottom. Farther down this skirts the remains of an unusual promontory fort, believed to date from a century before the Romans.
