The Church of St Oswald stands on ground slightly lower than the village of Thornton Steward, and a little over 0.25-mile (0.40 km) to the west.

The flat roof allowed water to ingress into the church during periods of heavy rainfall, and as such, the large bible had to be disposed of as it kept getting wet.

[11] The font is thought to be Early English and has an octagonal bowl with concave sides that slope down to the bottom, and a Jacobean era cover which has a ball finial.

[10] Due to its mention in the Domesday Book and its architectural origins which date back to the 11th century, St Oswald's is known as one of the oldest churches in Wensleydale.

[21] Other renovations had been carried out before; Thomas Dunham Whitaker commented in his 1823 book A History of Richmondshire... "The external appearance of the church has been modernized, and the whole is in an extremely neat and credible state.

"[22] The church is surrounded by an ancient burial site; a new pipeline system built by Yorkshire Water in 1996 revealed up to 30 bodies from a time period between the 7th and 10th centuries.