Church of St Oswald is a Grade I listed building in the North York Moors National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 October 1969. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Oswald

WRENN ID
solemn-tracery-curlew
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
North York Moors National Park
Constituency
Scarborough and Whitby MP: Alison Hume (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
6 October 1969
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Oswald, A174, Lythe, North Yorkshire
OS grid reference
NZ 850 131
Coordinates
54.50668, -0.68856
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Oswald is a parish church located in Lythe. It dates back to the 13th century, built on an older site, but was largely rebuilt in 1910 by Sir Walter Tapper. The tower contains some Saxon carved fragments, while the north aisle masonry is original, and there are remnants of medieval masonry at the east end. The church features coursed squared stone with a clay tiled roof and has added buttresses to the chancel.

The structure includes a nave, aisles, and a lower chancel with shorter aisles. A large square west tower topped with a short stone spire is prominent, along with a south porch. The nave has four bays, and the chancel has three bays, defined by large sloped and stepped buttresses. The tower consists of two stages and has paired lancet bell openings with quatrefoil spandrels, a corbel table, and a parapet. There are small lucarnes on the spire, and the porch features battered buttresses, a two-centred door arch with nook shafts, and a low parapet. The rainwater heads, dated 1911, are well-crafted.

Inside, the vaulted porch roof has a carved boss, and the oak door is linen-fold panelled. A small baptistery is located to the west of the tower. The interior showcases alternating round and octagonal arcade piers, a rib vault, and an oak gallery in the tower. The nave roofs are arch-braced collar-beam structures that appear to incorporate old timbers, as do the beam-and-joist aisle roofs, all of which are moulded. There is a screen with an organ case above it, and the south aisle chapel is vaulted. Additionally, several Georgian memorial tablets can be found within the church.

Local climate

Church of St Oswald receives an average of 860 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 60% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 74% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 9 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 92% of listed buildings. Of these, 6 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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