Church Of St Oswald

Church of St. Oswald

An Anglican parish church of the 12th and 13th centuries, restored by H.A. Prothero in 1903–4. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble, with more finely dressed stone in the east gable end of the chancel and the nave north wall, and has a stone slate roof. The plan consists of a nave, south transept with a porch against its west wall, and a chancel.

The 13th-century south transept features contemporary buttresses with offsets at the west gable end, a trefoil-headed lancet in the west wall, and two square-topped lancets (formerly pointed) in the gable ends. A Decorated 2-light east window has a hood with scroll stops. The chancel south wall contains a small 13th-century lancet on the left and an early 2-light Decorated window with a scroll moulded hood carrying an order of dogtooth ornament within and stops in the form of human heads—one male, one female. The east window comprises two lancets recessed within three orders of continuous cylindrical moulding, with simple pointed hoodmoulds that originally shared a common stop, probably in the shape of a small shell, similar to two remaining stops. The chancel north wall has three 13th-century lancets, one with a trefoiled head and one with a hood. The nave north wall contains two 2-light stone-mullioned windows, one set within the blocking of a 12th-century doorway that has a plain semi-circular tympanum and shallow hoodmould. At the west gable end, a central clamp buttress rises to a bellcote, with single cinquefoil-headed lights either side, their hoods bearing shields with letters and the date "AM/DG/19/04" from the 1903–4 restoration. The nave south wall has a small 20th-century 2-light stone-mullioned window. The porch, probably rebuilt in the 20th century, has a studded plank door incorporating part of an early door (probably formerly within the porch) within an almost flat 20th-century Tudor-arched surround, and a 20th-century door with fillets within a pointed flat-chamfered surround with hood.

The 13th-century bellcote is particularly fine, with two pointed bell chambers separated by two tiny bell columns, the western one dying into the contemporary buttress. Two pinnacles flank the bellcote, and the whole is surmounted by a pyramidal capping topped with a cross. The flat gable end coping features roll-cross saddles, and the east facing edge of the roof coping at the east end of the chancel is decorated with dogtooth decoration.

The interior is plastered. A pointed 13th-century chancel arch rests on 12th-century jambs. Two pointed arches with a central octagonal pier date from the early 20th-century restoration. The chancel roof is 19th-century with two bays, and the nave roof is 19th-century with three bays. The transept has a single bay wagon roof, formerly plastered.

The south transept contains a trefoil-headed piscina in the south wall with a stone mortar, an Early English rere arcade to the south window, and a trefoiled rere arch to the west window. The chancel features a fine 14th-century piscina with trefoil-headed openings on the north and west sides separated by a moulded pier below. Below the Decorated window in the south wall are two stone slab sedilia; a corbel of a man with a protruding tongue marks the right-hand end of the rere arch to the window, and another man's head corbel (probably not in its original position) stands to the left of the window. A fine Early English rere arcade to the east window has a central free-standing column with dogtooth decoration. The altar is 20th-century oak with a stone mensa. Remains of painted black lettered text with a decorative border in red (possibly 17th-century) survive on the south wall between windows. Remains of an early painted Decalogue appear in two parts on the nave north wall. A small area of former wall painting, possibly representing drapery, lies left of the chancel arch. Painted Royal Arms of 1714–1801 survive in plaster over the chancel arch. 20th-century panelling lines the nave, with fielded panelling in the chancel and transept, and sunken panelling with moulded margins and a 17th-century 'S'-scroll frieze (reused) in the sanctuary. The floor is of stone flags. An octagonal stone font stands inside the south doorway. The fittings include 20th-century pews and a pulpit.

Monuments include a limestone monument to Mary Peachy of Shipton Sollis (died 1772) on the west wall of the transept, with a carved and painted inscription, a winged cherub's head highlighted in gold within a triangular pediment, and painted red roses either side; the margin of the inscription panel is outlined in green and the consoles are painted black below. A single 19th-century monument appears on the south wall of the chancel. The east window contains 19th-century stained glass, with one light depicting the Virgin Mary and the other Saint Thomas.