Church Of St Oswald

Church of St Oswald

Parish church of 12th and 13th-century origins with a 15th-century chancel, the west tower rebuilt in 1805–7 and restored around 1820. The church was comprehensively restored in 1879–81 by Carpenter and Ingelow.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. Roofs are of plain tile and slate, with ashlar coped gables featuring moulded kneelers and finials. Angle buttresses with set-offs and a moulded ashlar eaves cornice with down-pipe brackets define the exterior.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave and aisles, chancel with north chantry chapel, and south porch.

The three-stage west tower has thin clasping gabled buttresses, a chamfered ashlar plinth, and a moulded quatrefoil band. The west face displays a narrow pointed 2-light window with reticulated tracery, above which sits a pair of pointed 2-light windows with simpler reticulated tracery, and above again a pair of similar bell openings under a single ogee hood rising to a central pinnacle. The north and south faces have blank first and second stages; the third stage matches the east and west faces. The tower is topped by cusped battlements and eight crocketted pinnacles. An octagonal stair turret attached to the south face has a pointed, moulded and chamfered arched doorway, cusped lancets above, and a band of quatrefoil, topped by coped battlements.

The north aisle west wall contains a single pointed arched, chamfered lancet. The north wall has three 2-light pointed arched windows in double chamfered surrounds with trefoil tracery and a small pointed arched doorway to the east. The chantry chapel has a quatrefoil parapet and two large gargoyles. Its south wall features a low segment-headed doorway with a 19th-century studded door in a moulded chamfered surround, and above it three 2-light windows with panel tracery in chamfered surrounds with segment heads. The east wall has a shallow pointed arched 3-light window with panel tracery in a moulded chamfered surround.

The chancel east wall contains a large pointed arched 3-light window with intersecting tracery in a chamfered surround. The chancel south wall has three pointed lancets in chamfered surrounds and, to the west, a tall ashlar stack with an octagonal pinnacle top. The south aisle has three 2-light windows with intersecting tracery in chamfered surrounds on its south wall and a single chamfered lancet to the west.

The gabled south porch has diagonal buttresses, a coped gable with cross finial. The outer archway has a shallow arched opening with shafts and a moulded chamfered arch; the inner doorway features a double roll-moulded pointed arch. Stone benches line the porch interior.

The interior comprises three-bay nave arcades with double chamfered pointed arches, octagonal piers and responds with moulded capitals, and stone seats around the pier bases. A tall 19th-century double chamfered tower arch rises above. Double chamfered pointed chancel arch, north aisle arch, and two similar chancel arches into the chantry chapel all feature octagonal piers and responds with moulded capitals and bases. The north aisle arch is decorated with dogtooth ornament.

A heavily restored double arched sedilia with circular shaft stands in the chancel. A fine mid-18th-century wooden carved lectern remains in use. An unusual praying desk was made from 18th-century table legs. Nineteenth-century wooden roofs, pulpit, choir stalls and pews furnish the interior, along with twelve ornate 19th-century iron candelabra.

An elaborate wooden reredos, carved, painted and gilded around 1900, occupies the chancel east wall. The chantry chapel contains a large Gothick-style monument with a marble relief of a mourning lady, commemorating Lady Florence Chaplin, 1851. A small mandala-shaped wall tablet to Caroline Chaplin is also in the chantry. The north aisle displays a small alabaster and bronze First World War memorial tablet.