Church Of St Oswald

Church of St. Oswald

An Anglican parish church at Compton Abdale, dating primarily to the 13th and 15th centuries, with significant restoration work undertaken in 1883 by Ewen Christian and again in 1904-5 by F.W. Waller.

The church is built in random limestone or limestone rubble, with the north wall of the north aisle partly rebuilt in ashlar. The porch is constructed in coursed, squared and dressed limestone, and the roof is stone slate. The building comprises a nave with a tower at the west end, a north aisle with a projecting porch towards the west end, and a chancel.

The chancel has a flat-chamfered plinth. Its north wall features a 19th-century two-light window with hollow-moulded stone mullion. The east window is Perpendicular with three lights, hollow-chamfered stone mullions, small embattlemented transom below the uppermost tracery, and a stopped hood. The south wall contains two two-light windows with hollow-moulded mullions, trefoil tracery at the top and carved spandrels.

The nave is buttressed at the south-west corner. Its south wall features two rectangular 19th-century windows with cinquefoil-headed lights and stone mullions with stepped and ovolo mouldings, trefoil in spandrels, and hollow-moulded surround. Traces of a possible blocked south doorway exist below the left-hand window. Towards the west end is a small two-light late Perpendicular or Tudor window with cinquefoil-headed lights and trefoil tracery in the upper corners, incorporating a carved green man (a man's head at the centre of a four-petalled flower) at the top of the hollow-moulded surround.

The Perpendicular three-stage tower has a moulded plinth with diagonal buttresses bearing couchant animals on the offsets. Strings separate the stages, with carved heads at their ends. At the centre of the string on the west side is a man blowing a horn, probably representing St. Oswald. A scratch sundial with metal gnomon appears on the south side of the tower. Two-light pointed belfry windows feature quatrefoils, stone slate louvres and stopped hoods. The battlemented parapet has beast's head gargoyles offset from the corners, and corner pinnacles in the form of rampant dogs or wolves with staves. A canted stair turret is positioned at the north-east corner of the tower.

The north aisle contains a Perpendicular window to the left of the porch matching that at the east end of the chancel, with a chamfered string at the east end. The Early English porch (rebuilt in the 19th century) has diagonal buttresses, a pointed entrance arch with two flat-chamfered orders with the inner forming Early English engaged columns, and a stopped hood. A carved man's head appears above the arch. The gable ends have stepped coping with roll-cross saddles. An upright stone cross finial crowns the east end of the chancel, and a weathervane sits at the centre of the tower. Inside the porch are stone bench seats, and a 19th-century door within a pointed Early English hollow-moulded arch with fillets.

The interior is plastered. The church has a four-bay 14th-century nave arcade with octagonal piers with moulded octagonal capitals. A 14th-century arch from the nave to the tower features engaged octagonal columns with embattlemented capitals decorated with four-petal flower ornament. A wide 19th-century double-chamfered arch connects the nave to the chancel. Wagon roofs cover the nave, chancel and south aisle, probably dating to the late 18th or 19th century. The chancel floor is red tile, while the nave floor is limestone flags. A doorless aumbry is set into the south wall of the chancel. An opening above the easternmost arch of the nave arcade provides access to the former rood loft. A defaced stone carving, probably representing St. George and the dragon with painted striped red and green background, is set into the wall above the pulpit.

The church contains 19th-century furniture and fittings including a chalice-like stone font inside the north door, pews and a pulpit. Monuments include four 19th-century white on grey marble monuments to members of the Walker family in the chancel, some by Lewis, along with two 19th-century stone ledges in the floor. 19th-century stained glass appears in the east window of the chancel and in the westernmost window of the nave's south wall. Fragments of medieval window glass survive in the west window of the tower. A tripartite wooden plaque in the tower records the recasting of the bells in 1880.

The tower was built when the church was a possession of St. Oswald's Priory at Gloucester.