Church Of St Oswald

The Church of St Oswald is a parish church dating largely to 1744, with the tower rebuilt in 1738. Some dressed stone from an earlier church was incorporated into the construction. The church is built of snecked rubble with rusticated quoins and has graduated slate roofs. It comprises a three-stage west tower, an aiseless nave, and a chancel. A single tall storey contains a west gallery. A C19 plank door is set within a segment-headed architrave with a segmental pediment on the west face of the tower. A chamfered surround defines a single-light first-floor window, while re-used C16 elliptical-headed three-light openings are set under a hoodmould to the second stage. A projecting embattled parapet tops the tower. The nave has eight bays with a gabled porch in each bay of the elevations. The porches have columnar responds framing pointed entrance arches, and contain stone side benches and segment-headed inner doors. Eight windows, one smaller above the porch, are set in semicircular-headed surrounds with projecting keystones. Two windows are at the east end. A cavetto eaves course runs along the nave and chancel, with stone copings, kneelers, and ball finials to the gables. The interior features a gallery with a back pew incorporating re-used panels, dated 1633, with carved texts. A square painted panel (set diagonally) formerly functioned as a clock face and is dated 1719; a brass plate inscription reads: "This clock was given to this Church by John Fothergill of Brownber In the Year 1719 Price Ten pounds." Painted text boards, the northern dated 1747 but potentially earlier, flank the chancel arch. A George II coat-of-arms is painted on a panel opposite the pulpit. A panelled partition, with a gallery above supported by brackets, divides the west end and is accessed via a C17 closed-string stair with turned balusters from the tower. Tiered pews line the nave, and a decoratively-panelled three-decker pulpit, with a tester, is located on the north side. The chamfered semicircular chancel arch likely incorporates medieval responds. An C18 elliptical communion rail with turned balusters stands before a re-used C17 panelled door, now serving as the entrance to the vestry on the north side of the chancel. Ionic modillions adorn the ceiling cornice in the nave. The stone font at the west end of the nave has an C18 octagonal bowl on an earlier chamfered stem. A commemorative C19 east window is dedicated "To the glory of God, and in memory of Mrs Gaunt, daughter of Anthony Fothergill, Brownber . She was the last female martyr burnt at Tyburn for the cause of the Protestant religion Oct.4, 1685.”