CITY OF DURHAM 



mines beneath,** and in 1834 '^ underwent a 

 somewhat drastic restoration. Tlie chancel, 

 south aisle and the greater part of the north aisle 

 were taken down and rebuilt, a vestry added on 

 the north side of the chancel, the clearstory 

 windows were renewed in an inferior style, the 

 nave roof destroyed and a new one erected, an 

 embattled parapet substituted for one of open 

 work of very graceful design which then existed, 

 and a new west window inserted in the tower. 

 There was a second restoration in 1864, when the 

 east end of the chancel was again rebuilt, an 

 organ chamber added between the vestry and 

 the north aisle, and the tower restored, all the 

 windows being renewed.*^ The interior was 

 restored in 1883 and a second vestry added to 

 the east of the former one. 



10 5 O 



walling belonging to the older church. A new 

 chancel was probably built round the old one 

 at the same time or early in the 1 3th century, but 

 was superseded a century later by the structure 

 which subsisted down to 1834. "^^^ '4'^^ century 

 also saw the rebuilding of the north aisle wall, 

 but no further change was made in the plan of 

 the church till some time in the 15th century, 

 probably about 141 2, when the nave was 

 extended westward two bays and a west tower 

 added. The impost mouldings of the tower 

 arch are apparently of late 12th-century date 

 and are probably portions of the west end of the 

 fabric then pulled down and used again in this 

 position.*' 



The chancel being entirely new is of no 

 antiquarian interest except as it reproduces 



□cII95 



I42J Century 

 1521 Century 

 Ei3 Modern 



DuRH.\M City : Plan of St. Oswald's Church 



The earliest parts of the building are the 

 chancel arch and the four easternmost bays of 

 the nave arcades, which date from about 1195 ; 

 the former chancel seems to have been of 14th- 

 century date, to which period the old part of the 

 north aisle wall with two of its windows belongs ; 

 the two westernmost bays of the nave, the clear- 

 story, and the tower date from the 15th century. 



Nothing definite can be stated about the early 

 church on the same site as there is no evidence 

 in the existing masonry of any work older than 

 c. 1 195, but it is possible that the north-east and 

 south-west angles of the nave may contain 



** ' The church ... is now so shaken by coal mines 

 that it is shut up and must be taken down ' : T. Rick- 

 man, Gothic Architecture (4th ed. 1835), 162. 



** A large number of mediaeval grave slabs and other 

 fragments were found at this time, mostly in the tower 

 walls and at the east end. One of the fragments is 

 a 13th-century corbel with dog-tooth moulding. They 

 are described and figured in Trans. Dur. and North. 

 Arch. Soc. i, loi, 152. 



ancient features. The plan of course follows 

 the old lines, but little else can be said to be even 

 a 'restoration.'** The east wall is faced with 

 ashlar, but the north and south walls, like those 

 of the rest of the building, are of rubble.** There 

 are diagonal buttresses at the external angles, but 

 the side walls are unbroken and terminate in 

 straight parapets. The roof is of low pitch and 

 lead covered. The east window is of four lights 

 with reticulated tracery, and on the south side 

 are three two-light windows with quatrefoils 

 in the heads and a string at the side level. On 

 the north side is a similar window at the east end 



*' It is, of course, possible that there was a tower 

 to the 12th-century church, but there is no evidence 

 of this. 



*« The windows in a general way reproduce the old 

 ones. There were originally three on the north side. 



«3 Hutchinson, writing about 1787, says: 'Being 

 built of stone subject to decay [the church] is in most 

 parts covered with rough cast and lime' {Hist, of 

 Dur. ii, 312). 



175 



