A small church of the mid-1960s in a low-key contemporary style, using a wide variety of materials. The building has been little altered. The main furnishing of note is an external crucifix by Frank Roper.

Mass was said in Saundersfoot from 1957 in various local halls. Work began on a new church in 1964, built from designs byKennedy, Griffiths & Associates (The Buildings of Wales). The church was intended to seat 200 and cost £18,500. It was blessed and formally opened by Bishop Langton Fox, auxiliary in Menevia, on 1 February 1966 (the feast of St Bride).

The church is served from Tenby (qv).

Description

The church is not orientated; the liturgical east end faces towards the west. All directions in the following description are liturgical.

The building is in a low-key and contextual modern style, making good use of the sloping site. The plan is rectangular, with the nave and tapering sanctuary under a continuous pitched roof and a flat-roofed forebuilding across the west end containing the entrance lobby and a small chapel. Placed upon the roof of the forebuilding, off-centre against the gable end, is an expressive crucifix by Frank Roper, whose work (in stained glass) is also to be seen at Newcastle Emlyn (qv). Behind the forebuilding rises the west gable end of the nave, faced partly in red brick and partly in vertical boarding. The other external walls are faced with a mixture of random stonework, red brick, render, roughcast and vertical boarding. The medley of materials gives the exterior a slightly restless appearance. The roof is covered in grey concrete tiles. The north elevation towards the road has three tall gabled windows to the nave and a large rectangular window filling the whole side of the sanctuary. The less conspicuous rear elevation also has three tall gabled windows and is faced with roughcast.

Internally, the tall nave space is divided into five bays by laminated timber roof trusses which are brought down to floor level. The floor is of woodblock, the walls plain plastered and the pitched ceiling boarded. The windows are glazed with clear etched glass. In the southwest corner of the nave is a small Lady Chapel. The walls of the sanctuary taper slightly on both sides. The north sanctuary wall is fully glazed, the south wall is blind. The east wall is also blind and has a central section of exposed rubble stone carrying a crucifix behind the altar. The furnishings, including the tabernacle stand, Lady altar, lectern, sanctuary rails and nave benches are all of timber and are probably original.

Heritage Details