Church Of St Oswald

The Church of St. Oswald is a church dating back to the late 11th or early 12th century, with subsequent work in the 13th, 15th, and 20th centuries, including additions and alterations in 1909 by Sir Charles Nicholson. It is constructed of squared sandstone with a graduated stone slate roof. The church comprises a west tower, a combined nave and chancel, a south aisle to the nave, a large south transept to the chancel, a later addition of a north nave, a 20th-century chancel, and a 20th-century north aisle.

The west tower is of Perpendicular style, three stages in height, featuring diagonal buttresses, a chamfered three-light west window with Perpendicular tracery, a clock face at the second stage, a dripmould to the third stage, cusped two-light louvred belfry windows, a machicolated embattled parapet with plain gargoyles, and crocketed corner pinnacles. A small two-centred arched, chamfered doorway is on the south side. The south aisle and south wall of the nave were rebuilt and feature four bays; a gabled porch protects a late Norman south doorway with two orders of colonnettes with decorated capitals. The aisle has a pitched roof with three cross-gables containing two-light Norman-style windows with quatrefoils above, and six coupled clerestory windows, each of two cusped lights. The south transept to the chancel is of the 13th century, with angle buttresses, a large four-light window with bar tracery and foiled circles, gable coping with a carved finial, and three chamfered lancets in the east wall. A 20th-century east window of five lights with Perpendicular-style tracery is also present. Additions on the north side and at the east end, in Perpendicular style, date to 1909 and are marked on the north wall of the vestry.

The interior is notable for its exceptionally wide space. Three arcades are present; the former nave has a late Norman, four-bay south arcade of quatrefoil piers with scalloped cushion capitals and stepped semicircular arches. The north arcade has octagonal columns with moulded capitals carrying double-chamfered two-centred arches. The chancel to this nave has two-centred arches moulded in two orders with responds comprised of three slender detached shafts with annular caps, around a circular core. A single detached shaft supports the south transept arch. Within this transept is a 17th-century pew belonging to the Calverley family of Esholt, lettered "WC", and an enclosed medieval piscina. Various wall monuments are also present.