The church was built in the late 1930s under the auspices of Fr Malachy Lynch, then head of the Carmelite community at Aberystwyth. It is a late design by the London Catholic architect T.H.B. Scott, in his habitual brick round-arched manner, and is notable for the number and quality of its Arts and Crafts furnishings. The attached presbytery was also designed by Scott.

The Catholic church at Lampeter was a Carmelite foundation, built under the auspices of Fr Malachy Lynch, the head of the Carmelite community at Aberystwyth. The church and its attached neo-Georgian presbytery were designed by the London architect Thomas Henry Birchall Scott (who was in partnership with his son Thomas G. Birchall Scott from 1928). Scott (1872-1945) designed a large number of Catholic churches in the London area in the years between the two world wars (more than twenty in the Archdiocese of Westminster alone). Most of these were built of brick in a simple but effective round-arched style. The church and its fitting out were the fruit of a partnership of client, architect and Catholic artists and craftsmen and women. Scott was one of the founders of the Guild of Catholic Artists and Craftsmen, some of whose members made furnishings for the church. Fr Lynch went on to revive the friary and shrine at Aylesford, Kent, a major manifestation of twentieth century Catholic Arts and Crafts. Lampeter became a separate parish in 1947.

The church and attached presbytery are described in more detail in the list entry, which was revised and expanded in May 2024, following Taking Stock: Listed Buildings – Full Report – HeritageBill Cadw Assets – Reports (cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net)

Heritage Details