Roman Catholic Church Of St Oswald And St Edmund Arrowsmith

The Roman Catholic Church of St. Oswald and St. Edmund Arrowsmith in Arrowsmith was built between 1925 and 1930, designed by J. K. Brocklesby. It is constructed of stone in a Romanesque style. The church comprises a nave, chancel, ambulatory, a south west tower, a north west turret and north and south chapels (the ritual west being the actual north).

The west front features a corbel table and a giant arch of three orders containing a round-headed window and a three-ordered entrance. A relief in the tympanum depicts the coronation of the Virgin, with sliding doors beneath. A statue of St. Oswald stands on the corbel table. To the left is a round turret with a round-headed window and a conical roof constructed of diminishing courses of pointed stones. The tower to the right has angle buttresses. Windows on the west and south have shafts and hood moulds with head stops; tall slots are present on the second stage, with paired round-headed bell openings above. The tower has a corbel table and a pyramidal roof.

The nave has seven bays, with a clerestory featuring a corbel table and pinnacles flanking the central and end bays and two triplets of windows. The two south chapels, each with three bays, flank the entrance bay, with a Lombard frieze and sill course. The eastern chapel's windows are shafted with enriched archivolts. Weathered buttresses are present on the eastern bay, as well as flanking the round-headed entrance. The east end of the chapel features a round apse with a stone roof and two windows on the sill course. The chancel has a rounded end, a Lombard frieze and shafted windows with enriched archivolts; a weathered buttress flanks it, and a small round apse with a window. The clerestory includes seven windows. The north side mirrors the south, connecting to the presbytery and three lower bays of confessionals to the west.

Internally, the nave is divided into three-bay units featuring arcades on quatrefoil piers with enriched transverse arches and saucer domes, and a smaller intermediate bay. A west gallery is supported by three arches, the outer ones stilted, on enriched clustered shafts; an arcading to the gallery front is also present. The ambulatory includes transverse arches on corbels. The chancel has five stilted arches leading to the ambulatory. The vaulted roof is stencilled. North and south feature five-bay blind interlaced arcades with three recesses. The north chapel has a west screen of three stilted, enriched arches and three bays to the ambulatory. A round-headed recess to the east contains a reredos painting over a marble altar; beyond that is a vestry with iron gates. The east apse to the ambulatory contains a shrine and iron gates. The chapels to the south have three-bay arcades to the ambulatory; the eastern chapel has its own apse with a shrine and screen to the west. Stained glass, in an expressionist style by Harry Clarke (1930-7), is present, along with similar glass dated 1970. Two holy water stoups, free-standing blocks with reliefs to the front, are located at the west end of the nave. A bow-fronted pulpit displays a peacock emblem. The chancel has an arcaded rail and a marble altar, complemented by a wooden altar in a cyma form from a former chapel dating from 1822. The church is noted for its excellent carving of corbels, arches, etc., by the Howe Brothers, and for being the shrine of the hand of the martyr St. Edmund Arrowsmith.