St Oswald's Church and The Irishman's Graveyard

This Catholic Church dates from 1839 and replaced an abandoned 1794 chapel. The church is a lancet Gothic design by Ignatius Bonomi (more famously known for his work on the first railway bridge in the world at Darlington). The £1,250 cost was mainly met by the prominent Charlton family of Hesleyside Hall (about half a mile outside of Bellingham).

A blue sign between the Jubilee Field and St Oswald's Church marks the site of the Irishmen’s Graveyard, where around 100 navvies who died of cholera during the construction of Catcleugh Reservoir between 1899 and 1905 are buried.

Owing to the nature of their illness the Catholic's amongst the deceased were unable to be buried with the cemetery at St Oswald's and were instead interred opposite.