St Oswald's Church, Hauxwell

St Oswald's Church is the parish church of West Hauxwell, a village in North Yorkshire, in England.

The church was built in the 11th century. In about 1230, the chancel was doubled in length, and a tower was added. The church was restored in 1861 by George Fowler Jones, who added a porch and a vestry. The church was grade I listed in 1967.[1][2] In 2025, it was added to the Heritage at Risk Register, at which time it was described as in "very bad" and "declining" condition.[3][4]

The church is built of sandstone with roofs of stone slate and lead, and consists of a nave with a south porch, a chancel with a north vestry, and a west tower. The tower has four stages, angle buttresses, a two-light west window, lancet windows, two-light bell openings, and an embattled parapet. The nave and the vestry also have embattled parapets. The gabled porch has a round-arched entrance and inside is a Norman doorway that has columns with scallop capitals, zigzag, billet and roll mouldings. Inside, there is a piscina, an octagonal font on a 13th-century base, a pulpit built from Jacobean panels, two 15th-century bench ends, and memorials including effigies of William de Barden, who died in 1309, and his wife.[2][5]

In the churchyard to the south of the church is a cross shaft, dating from the 8th or 9th century. It is carved from stone and about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in height. The shaft is set on a plain base, and on the east side is a Stafford knot pattern and a panel for an inscription. Only part of the lower arm of the cross-head survives. It is a grade II listed building and also a scheduled monument. It is locally believed to commemorate James the Deacon, who is said to have founded the church.[6][7]

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Oswald's Church, Hauxwell.
  1. ^ Page, William (1914). A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 1. London: Victoria County History. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b Historic England. "Church of Saint Oswald, West Hauxwell (1179762)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 March 2026.
  3. ^ Gouldsbrough, Patrick (6 November 2025). "North Yorkshire buildings in Historic England 'at risk' list". Darlington and Stockton Times. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  4. ^ "Church of St Oswald, West Hauxwell – North Yorkshire Council (UA)". Heritage at Risk. Historic England. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
  5. ^ Grenville, Jane; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2023) [1966]. Yorkshire: The North Riding. The Buildings of England. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-25903-2.
  6. ^ Historic England. "Saxon cross shaft approximately 10 metres to south of Church of Saint Oswald's, West Hauxwell (1318612)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 March 2026.
  7. ^ Lang, James (1984). Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, Volume VI: Northern Yorkshire. London: British Academy. ISBN 9780197262566.
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