Church of St Oswald

Church of St Oswald, Dunham-on-Trent

Parish church dating from the 15th century. The church was largely rebuilt in 1862, with the exception of the tower, which survives from the original medieval structure. The building is constructed of ashlar with slate roofs and coped gables bearing single ridge crosses at the east end of the nave and chancel. It is set on a plinth and comprises a tower, nave, north aisle and chancel.

The 15th-century tower is the most significant surviving element. It features an embattled parapet and four crocketed pinnacles, with two gargoyles on the north side and the remains of single gargoyles on both the west and south sides. Diagonal buttresses, gabled part way up their height, are decorated with crockets. Single string courses run across the plinth and at the junction of each of the four stages.

The west face is divided into three stages. At the base is a west doorway with a pointed arched surround, hood mould and label stops, fitted with a wooden door. Above this is a single ogee-arched and vaulted niche with two bosses; the arch is decorated with crockets, surmounted by a hood mould with grotesque head label stops and an ornate finial. Higher still is a single large moulded arched window with four lights, panel tracery, cusping, hood mould, figurative label stops and finial. The belfry stage contains four very large arched and traceried openings, each with four arched and cusped lights surmounted by a further four similar lights. The west, south and north sides contain three, four and one small rectangular stair lights respectively. The east side shows evidence of a former nave roof.

The north aisle has three two-light windows with tracery and cusping under flat arches, while its east wall contains a single two-light arched window with tracery and cusping. The north chancel wall features a single arched, traceried and cusped light with hood mould and head label stops. The east chancel wall has a single three-light arched, traceried and cusped window with hood mould, head label stops and sill band with foliate stops, with a single trefoil in the apex. The south chancel wall contains a single two-light window with cusping and a single stone transom under a flat arch. The south nave has three arched two-light windows with Y-tracery, hood moulds, label stops and carved head finials.

Interior features include a three-bay nave arcade with double chamfered arches supported on circular columns with moulded capitals. At the west and east ends, the arcade is supported on foliate-decorated corbels. The double chamfered chancel arch is supported on slim engaged columns with foliate-decorated capitals. The tall double chamfered tower arch has foliate-decorated imposts with ribs decorating the angles below and blind cusped panels at the base.

The south chancel wall contains a piscina with a cusped and decorated arch and a foliate-decorated ogee hood mould with label stops and finial. Adjacent to this is a single sedile with a fleuron-decorated moulded arch and similarly decorated hood mould with foliate label stops. The reredos and furnishings date from the 19th century.