St Oswald's Church

The present St Oswald Church was built in 1358 but since then parts of it have been rebuilt or restored. The Tower remains over 600 years old but the South Aisle was rebuilt in 1530 (and restored again in 1836). The North Aisle was rebuilt in 1580. In 1701 the present Nave roof was added and in 1849 the Chancel was completely rebuilt.

The present Church though is not the first on the site and it was recorded as such in the Domesday Book of 1086, fragments of this Norman church are still to be seen built into the bases of the pillars of the North Aisle arcade, including stone carvings showing bishops wearing mitres of the period about 1100.

Before the Norman Church it is probable that a wooden building stood on this hill next to a great Saxon stone preaching cross, the very first Christian monument erected here, whose cross arm, more than 1000 years old and weighing more than three quarters of a ton, is still preserved in the Church.

The Church sits on a listed English Civil War battlefield site and is a Grade 1 listed building. For those with a preference for modern history we have on display a copy of the wedding certificate for Edward Smith the Captain of the Titanic who married a local girl Sarah Pennington in St Oswald's church in 1887.