It is known that an Anglo-Saxon church served by a priest existed on the current site at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 AD.
The present building was mainly built in the early 1200s and consecrated in 1241 by the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, Hugh de Patishul. Much of it was probably paid for by wealthy local merchants trading in wool from sheep grazing the nearby Peak District hills.
The church contains a fine collection of medieval tombs of the powerful local gentry families of Cockayne and Bradbourne, as well as a famous marble reclining sculpture of Penelope Boothby, the only child of Sir Brooke Boothby of Ashbourne Hall, who died in 1791 a month before her sixth birthday.
For more general information about St Oswalds and other churches in the area visit www.ashbournechurch.org
© The Ashbourne Partnership