Oswestry / Oswaldstre / Oswestrie

Anderson (1864) notes here an ancient collegiate church of Saxon foundation; it was dedicated to St. Oswald, and given to Shrewsbury Abbey by 1085. Newman & Pevsner (2006) report two fonts in this church, neither medieval, though. At the west end of the nave is a font: "Dated 1662. Octagonal, in the Perp[endicular] tradition. Carved on the faces of the bowl with heraldic devices of Colonel Edward Lloyd who had commanded the Royalist garrison." The font is described and illustrated in the Parish website [http://www.oswestryparishchurch.org/tour/1662font.htm] [accessed 19 April 2010]: "The older of the Church's two Fonts, octagonal and of Perpendicular design, is dated 1662 - some years before the 1675 rebuilding. It bears the date, a double-headed eagle and a rosette. Having been sited in the customary position near to the main door, it was moved to the north wall of the Tower by G E Street at the time of the 1870's restoration of the Church, close to the Choir Vestry, where it remained until its present siting in the north aisle in 1977. The double-headed eagle crest has been granted to the Lloyd family by the Holy Roman Emperor for distinguished service during the Crusades, and the Font is thought to have been a gift from Colonel Lloyd, Governor of Oswestry Castle, as a thank-offering for the restoration to the throne of King Charles II." Newman & Pevsner (ibid.) report a second font in this church: "1874. Carved by Earp to Street's design. Circular, with seated Evangelists in relief. Fine timber steeple cover." [NB: Thomas Earp and George Edmund Street]. The same authors described the modern font at the Holy Trinity Church, on Salop Road: "A beautiful Art Nouveau piece of 1894, alabaster and veined marble. Saucer-shaped bowl supported on petal-like flying corbels. The glass cover has not survived." [NB: we have no information on the medieval font(s) of the earlier church]