The origins of Old St Oswald Church, Fulford

Many a church guide claims that their present building sits on the site of a more ancient structure. But how accurate are these claims? Recently the Fishergate, Fulford, and Heslington Local History Society (FFH) – a community group with a long-standing and very active interest in their historic landscape – decided to try to find out whether this was true of the deconsecrated medieval church, dedicated to St Oswald, that sits on the east bank of the River Ouse, in the village of Fulford, some 2km south of York. Current Archaeology's Chris Catling reports.

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Current Archaeology

November 5, 2020

Today, Fulford is a suburb of York located along the present A19 – originally a Roman road that ran into the city centre – but once it was a separate village. It is remembered by medieval historians as the site of the Battle of Fulford (20 September 1066), the first of three battles fought by claimants to the English throne following the death of Edward the Confessor. (The second was the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September and the third the Battle of Hastings on 14 October.) The village has two churches: a large Victorian building dating to 1866, and Old St Oswald, declared redundant in 1973 and converted into a private dwelling in the 1980s. Like many English churches, Old St O

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