Church Of St Oswald

Church of St Oswald

Parish church with a 14th-century tower and porch. The nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1860-1 by Kempson of Hereford. The building is constructed in coursed limestone and sandstone rubble with limestone dressings and slate roofs with raised coped verges with kneelers and cross finials. The church comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, and chancel, executed in Decorated and Perpendicular styles.

The three-stage tower features a two-light Decorated west window in a splayed reveal with hood mould, and trefoil-headed lancets to north and south at the second stage. The third stage has two-light Decorated windows on all four sides with stone bell-louvres and hood moulds linked by a string course which continues round the top set-offs of diagonal weathered buttresses. A northeast stair turret with an angled top and finial rises from the tower, with limestone quoins forming chequerwork against the sandstone walling. The former roof line of the nave is visible on the east side. The Perpendicular parapet is pierced with tracery, though pinnacles are now missing. Angels serve as rainwater spouts to the north and south.

The three-bay nave has three Perpendicular two-light windows to the north with hood moulds showing unfinished stops. The wall is battered below a weathered string course and has quoins. The south wall contains a porch in the central bay with a slightly pointed arched opening and moulded surround, raised coped verges, and a sundial on a block at the top of the gable. The south wall is weathered at each side.

The chancel has a three-light Perpendicular east window and two cinquefoil-headed single lights to the south, all in the same surround as the nave windows, with a plinth and weathered string.

Interior features include a 15th-century south door with Perpendicular panelling, now cut in half to form a double door, with a moulded surround and hood mould. The west window has a plain stone surround and relieving arch. The tower was originally vaulted, though only the springings survive. The tower arch comprises three chamfered orders which die off into the responds.

The nave has a brattished wall-plate and a wagon roof with moulded purlins and ridge purlin. All windows are in splayed reveals with chamfered and stopped jambs and segmental heads. The south door has a chamfered, Tudor-arched head.

The chancel has a high pointed arch in a moulded surround with hood mould showing foliate stops. The wagon roof spans five bays and is divided into thirty painted panels by ribs with moulded rosette bosses in two bays to the east. The wall-plate is brattished. Windows match those in the nave with the same surround, and the east window also has a hood mould with foliate stops. The north wall contains a pointed arched door in a chamfered surround, now blocked from the outside, and a cinquefoil-headed piscina. The south window sill has sedilia formed from a 14th-century tomb chest with ogee-shaped canopies, crocketed finials, and blank shields. Remains of wall painting appear on the lower part of the east wall, and there is a moulded string under the sill of the windows.

Fittings include a Perpendicular octagonal font with quatrefoils in panels in the nave; a Jacobean chest in the nave; royal arms on the south wall of the nave; and a marble monument in the chancel to William Davies, 1848, nephew of Edward Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination. The chancel floor comprises early 17th to early 18th-century ledger stones, including one to William Quintin, parson from 1632-40. An early 17th-century ledger stone is located in the west nave by the font.