A functional design of the 1960s, built to serve a post-war housing estate, with some imported furnishings.

The church is dedicated to the Romano-British martyr St Julius of Caerleon, whose shrine was on the nearby site of St Julius’ House, former home of the Herbert family (this fell into disrepair in the twentieth century and was demolished in 1980). No information about the church has been obtained, but it appears to have been built in the 1960s as a chapel-of-ease to serve the post-war development of the St Julian’s estate. It now forms part of the large All Saints parish, served from St Mary’s, Newport.

Description

A small and functional steel-framed structure, of no architectural pretensions but probably built to the designs of F. R. Bates, Son & Price. It consists of a main building with shallow-pitched roofs with concrete tiles, and flat-roofed and felted appendages on two sides. The walls are rendered. A crucifix is attached to the wall by the main entrance. Inside, the steel frame is exposed in the wide, aisleless nave, which is lit from one side. A rectangular opening separates the nave from the narrower, canted sanctuary, which is lit on two sides. Furnishings include a crucifix against the east wall and a good set of oak pews (of interwar character, presumably imported from elsewhere).

Heritage Details