Church Of St Oswald

The Church of St Oswald is a parish church located on a medieval site. It was rebuilt in 1737 and remodelled with the addition of a porch in 1887 by W. S. Hicks. The church is constructed from squared roughly-tooled stone with rusticated quoins at the southern angles and features ashlar dressings. It has a Welsh slate roof, except for stone slates on the porch. The building has a rectangular plan with a south porch, while the west end contains a vestry, with a division wall that supports a 19th-century bellcote. The 19th-century work is in a simple Perpendicular style.

The south elevation consists of five bays, with the second bay featuring a projecting porch. It includes diagonal buttresses and boarded double doors set in a double-chamfered arch, with a small two-light window above. The gable is coped and topped with a finial cross. The nave windows are square-headed, each containing two trefoil-headed lights with lead-latticed glazing. Between the eastern bays is a sundial dated 1737, complete with a moulded cornice and base. The gables are coped, with the western gable featuring a small corniced stack. The ridge bellcote has an ogee-headed opening under gabled coping, with trefoiled kneelers and a finial cross on the east gable. The east end displays a 19th-century three-light window, while the north and west walls are plain, with two large stepped buttresses on the north side.

Inside, the porch has stone benches and the south door features a wave-moulded pointed arch. There is no division between the nave and chancel. The interior includes a boarded dado, and the sill of the east window has been lowered to form a reredos. The roof is a six-bay structure from the late 18th or early 19th century, featuring principal-rafter trusses with collars, braces, and struts, with tie-beams replaced by iron rods. There is one 18th-century hatchment and a carved 12th-century corbel built into the north wall. A Roman altar with a later socket for a cross shaft is also present. The church is historically significant as it is built on the site of the Battle of Heavenfield in 634, where King Oswald of Northumbria defeated Cadwalla.