The Interior of St. Oswald's Church

 

A view east along the nave

Entering St. Oswald’s church by the south door, after a very quick look at its exterior, I then proceeded to quickly take general record photographs of the principal architectural elements - the nave, the south arcade, the south aisle, the tower arch and the chancel – before having a wander round to look at the details. 

 

The north wall of the nave

 

Since investigating St. Helen’s church in Treeton back in February 2016, I have surveyed the stonework of more than 100 mediaeval churches in South Yorkshire and the surrounding counties and, as a geologist with a specialist interest in building stones, this is the first time that I have been uncertain in distinguishing limestone from sandstone when recording my observations in this Language of Stone Blog. 

 

A east along the north wall of the nave

 

On this occasion, having noted the dolomitic limestone on the oldest parts of the exterior of the nave, I assumed that this is what I would find in the interior; however, a combination of the covering of the masonry by thick limewash and the lighting conditions has left me a bit uncertain and I would need to visit the church again.

 

The church guide

I have no formal training in standing buildings archaeology but, making good use of the Pevsner Architectural Guides, descriptions of Listed Buildings by Historic England, the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland and books such as Saxon Churches in South Yorkshire and Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire, I am learning more about the subject everyday. 

 

The remains of a Saxon wall

Although none of the above mentioned authorities make any reference to elements earlier than the C13, the church plan marks the north wall and the chancel arch as being C12, with fragments of Anglo-Saxon foundations still being visible beneath the floor of the nave. 

 

The south arcade

Looking at the south arcade, which Pevsner assigns to the Decorated Gothic period (c. 1275 – 1350), I could recognise Upper Carboniferous Coal Measures sandstone beneath the fading limewash by its distinctive colour, but I would like to closely examine the stone.

 

A view west along the nave

Turning to view the west end of the nave, the very tall tower arch is obviously of a much later date - the post c.1350 Perpendicular Gothic period – and together with the chancel arch and its surrounding masonry, my first impression was that has Permian dolomitic limestone and not Carboniferous sandstone has been used for the walling. 

 

The chancel

Moving into the chancel, I was too distracted by the wonderful grotesques to take much notice of the Guisely gritstone used for its C20 extension - as described on the church website – and I assume that these dolomitic limestone carvings, thought to date from the mid C14,  were reset in the chancel during one of the 1874 and 1903 restorations. 

 

Various grotesques in the chancel

 

Further fine sculpture is  seen in the heads of lions, forming the stops to the mouldings of a square headed crocketed canopy, beneath which lies the table tomb of Sir Robert Waterton (d.1425) and his wife Cecily - just one of many excellent monuments in the church.

 

The canopy of the tomb of Sir Robert Waterton