St Oswald's Church, Ravenstonedale

St Oswald’s Church stands in the quiet village of Ravenstonedale in Cumbria’s Eden Valley. Built mainly in 1744 around older walls, its tower rises at the west end in three stages with a plain west door and small bell-openings. The nave runs eight bays long, with north and south porches and a short chancel at the east. Rubble-stone walls carry slate roofs, and the parapet above is cut into battlements. Inside, the church feels calm and enclosed. A gallery spans the west end above a narrow cross-passage, and box pews face inward in six ranks like a college chapel. A three-decker pulpit with sounding board stands on the north side, and the chancel arch still holds medieval stones. Painted boards carry texts and the royal arms of George II, while a 1719 panel once served as a clock face. The east window remembers Mrs Gaunt, the last woman burned at Tyburn for Protestant belief in 1685, and other stained glass includes work by Shrigley and Hunt and J. E. Nuttgens. Outside, the churchyard holds the broken shaft of a pre-Norman cross topped by a 1700 brass sundial. To the north lie the low ruins of Ravenstonedale Priory’s east range, a Gilbertine cloister from the 13th or 14th century. The tower contains three bells, the oldest dating from about 1530, though none can be rung today.