PARISHIONERS of St Clement's, Worcester are holding a special celebration service on Sunday, March 16, to mark the 180th anniversary of their church on its present site in Henwick Road.

The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Rev Dr Peter Selby will conduct the celebration service, starting at 6.30pm.

The "new" St Clement's Church at "Henwick Hill" was built at a cost of £3,700 and consecrated on March 13, 1823, but it was, in effect, the church that crossed the river!

The former St Clement's Church had stood for several centuries on the opposite side of the Severn, close to the waterfront and near the bottom of Dolday.

The earliest recorded Rector of St Clement's was Richard de Cotheridge in 1239, though some historians believe that the church near Dolday could even date back to pre-Norman Conquest times of 1,000 years ago.

The waterfront St Clement's had been the victim of so many Severn floods that it was decided at the start of the 1820s to pull it down and build a new church on higher ground at Henwick Hill on the opposite side of the river.