Description

DURHAM AND FRAMWELLGATE CHURCH STREET
NZ 2741 NE (West side)

17/50 Church of St. Oswald
6.5.52
GV II*

Parish church. Late C12; probably on site of earlier church; extensively rebuilt
1834 by Ignatius Bonomi (chancel, south aisle, west part of north wall, clerestory).
Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; roof damaged by fire at time of
survey. West tower, aisled nave, chancel with 1864 north vestry, by Hodgson Fowler.

4-stage tower has renewed 4-light west window and blank north and south first
stage; small 2-light windows above with cusped ogee heads; very small square
windows in third stage; tall 2-light belfry openings with 2-centred heads.
Diagonal buttresses with offsets; battlemented parapet with corner gargoyles and
pinnacles. Buttressed south aisle has renewed moulded 2-centred arch in first
bay under ogee-headed niche with blind tracery above; (plainer door in first bay
of north aisle); 2-light windows in 2-centred arches; parapet with sloped coping.
Tudor arches over clerestory windows with 3 cusped lights; battlemented parapet
on shafts. 3-bay chancel has 3 cusped lights; east front has high gable containing
4-light window with reticulated tracery flanked by large diagonal buttresses;
niches in these contain statues under crocketed gablets; spirelets have acanthus
finials. North aisle windows: Decorated in 2 west bays separated by large
buttress from 2 east bays with Perpendicular windows, all of 2 lights. Interior:
plaster with sandstone ashlar arcades and dressings; low-pitched roof has king
posts flanked by 4 queen posts each side; re-used purlins: alternate trusses rest
on re-used braces with angels and masks, said to be from earlier hammer-beam roof.
Nave arcades have chamfered round arches on keeled shafts and 3 round columns at
east end; 2 octagonal columns and octagonal half-columns at west end; 2-centred
slightly-chamfered chancel arch on water-leaf capitals and square piers with
broach-stopped chamfers. North aisle of 2 stages: eastern 3 bays end in transverse
arch and have C16 panelled roof with moulded beams and bosses,now with decoration
removed. Tower has tall double-chamfered arch with moulded square capitals;
square-headed door to stone spiral stair, formed from medieval grave-covers; 8-
ribbed vault with wide circular central rib. Glass in west window 1864-6 by Morris
and Co. with panels by Ford Madox Brown; other windows by Kempe and Co. and by
Clayton and Bell. Undergoing repairs at time of survey.

Listing NGR: NZ2758541915

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Oswald at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17535914

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)