Church Of St Oswald

The Church of St Oswald, located on St Oswald's Road in Small Heath, was begun in 1892 with the west front added in 1899. Designed by architect W H Bidlake, it is a striking church built of red brick with stone dressings. The church features a lofty nave with clerestory, four shallow aisles, transepts, and a chancel with a flat east end, all topped with steep tiled roofs. The prominent west front showcases a flat two-centred arch west window in a Decorated style, flanked by blind tracery panels and corner buttresses capped with octagonal stone spired pinnacles. The main gable is adorned with a canopied niche for a saint and a cross finial. The ground floor is largely blind, except for two lancet windows, and the west doors are set in cross wings beneath two-centred arches with three shafted orders. Inside, there is a four-bay nave arcade and a large, elaborately designed wooden altarpiece that includes a painting of the Crucifixion by S Meteyard, created in 1916.