Legend has it that St Oswald preached here in the seventh-century and that a church was established soon after. The present church dates from the mid thirteenth-century and was extended in the sixteenth-century. At this time the northern wall was pierced at intervals to allow the extension to be connected to the main body.

Then the northern aisle and nave had separate roofs; later they were combined with a second tier of arches built on top of the central wall. The intricacy of the exposed beams above the massive whitewashed pillars makes the inerior as visually exciting as the outside is drab and unpromising.

The walls and pillars carry numbers of boards with short biblical texts. The most notable memorial is that to William Wordswoth, high on the wall to the left of the altar.

Until the nineteenth century the floor was of earth and strewn with rushes. The annual rushbearing, on the Saturday nearest to St Oswald's Day, 5th August, commemorates this practice.

After the service, the children who have taken part are presented with the traditional piece of Grasmere gingerbread sold at the gingerbread shop beside the northern lychgate; until 1854 this was the village school. In the churchyard ar the graves of William Wordsworth and his family as well as that of Hartley Coleridge.

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