St Oswald’s Church, Fulford: Origins and Significance

Abstract

A deconsecrated medieval church, dedicated to St Oswald, sits isolated beside a possible crossing of the Rive Ouse, downstream from York. It was the site of an early well and evidence includes a fragment of the pre-Conquest cross and a possible early timber church identified through excavation in the 1980s. This paper pulls together these various disparate pieces of evidence, including patterns of landownership, a possible association with the cult of St Oswald, and looks at the wider context and significance of this former church.

Keywords:

• St Oswald
• Fulford
• York
• Rahtz and Watts
• pre-conquest sculpture
• excavation
• medieval church
• trackway
• Anglo-Saxon
• Anglian
• pottery

Acknowledgements

This paper was initiated by the Fishergate, Fulford and Heslington Local History Society (FFH) under the leadership of Christopher Rainger and Louise Wheatley.

The archaeological report was based on an initial draft and supporting material prepared by Lorna Watts and the late Professor Philip Rahtz, now held in the archive of York Archaeological Trust. FFH is grateful to Lorna Watts and the Trust for making it the available, especially to Louis Carter of YAT for digitising much of the archive, now available on the FFH website at www.ffhyork.weebly.com.

The authors are grateful to the following for participating in the FFH conference The Historic Mystery of Old St Oswald’s held in Fulford on 10 June 2017: chair of the conference, John Oxley (City of York Principal Archaeologist); speakers, Dr Eric Cambridge, Professor Jane Hawkes, Dr Clare Stancliffe, Lorna Watts MA, Christopher Rainger; conference panel members, Dr Peter Addyman, Dr Mary Garrison, Dr Louise Wheatley, and Allan Francis, who also led a tour of the churchyard and allowed close inspection of the cross fragment.

FFH would like to thank the following for their financial support to the Old St Oswald’s research project: Mark Fitch Fund, Noel Goddard Terry Charitable Trust, York Common Good Trust, York Architectural and York Archaeological Society, Sheldon Memorial Trust, Friends of York Archaeological Trust, York Philosophical Society, Fulford Parish Council, PLACE (People, Landscape And Cultural Environment of Yorkshire), and Bryan Milner.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jon Kenny

Jon Kenny graduated from University of York in 1996 with a BA (hons) in Archaeology and a Masters in Archaeological Heritage Management. He then went on to receive a PhD from Lancaster University in 2001. He worked as a project manager at the University of York until becoming a community archaeologist at York Archaeological Trust, becoming self-employed in 2015 running Jon Kenny – Community Archaeology until the present date.

Ailsa Mainman

Dr Ailsa Mainman, Research Associate, York Archaeological Trust and Dept of Archaeology, University of York.

Christopher Rainger

Christopher Rainger is Chair of Fishergate, Fulford and Heslington Local History Society. He was Principal Civil Engineer for British Waterways and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.