Church Of St Oswald

The Church of St Oswald is a Grade I listed building, dating from the 12th century and later in the 15th and 16th centuries, with restoration completed in 1869. It is constructed of coursed gritstone rubble in the tower, while the remainder is made of ashlar, topped with a stone slate roof. The church features a west tower, a 2-bay nave with north and south aisles and a south porch, and a chancel of 2 bays that includes an organ chamber on the north side and a vestry on the south side.

The tower consists of four stages, with slight quoins, a narrow single-splayed window in stages two and three, and a larger, round-headed belfry window, all capped with a pyramidal roof. The south porch has a shallow pointed arch, and the south aisle and chancel are adorned with round-headed, 3-light mullioned windows. The east end of the south aisle wall and the chancel feature 19th-century gabled windows in the Perpendicular style.

Inside, the west wall of the nave showcases a round-headed, quoined and voussoired arch with a fine door, likely from the 12th or 13th century, featuring elaborate wrought-iron strap hinges and decoration. Above this door is a single-splayed window that looks into the second stage of the tower. The 2-bay nave arcades are supported by octagonal piers with roll-mouldings and emblems in relief on the capitals. The chancel arch is unmoulded and round-headed. Within the chancel, there is a piscina with a triangular canopy and crocketted finials on the south side, as well as memorials to the Hitch family on the chancel walls. The restoration in 1869 also included a new roof, the replacement of box pews, and the insertion of the organ into the north aisle chapel.