A modern church designed by F. R. Bates, Son & Price to serve a new housing development. The building is functional in external appearance but the liturgical arrangement of the interior shows careful thought. Contains some good dalle de verre glass by Brother Gilbert Taylor of Prinknash Abbey.

The parish was erected in 1966. Mass was celebrated at first in St Illtyd’s College, a high school run by the de la Salle order. In 1968 a junior school was completed, which served as a Mass centre until 1975. The present church is dedicated to the Welsh martyr Fr John Lloyd, who was executed just three miles away in 1679 and canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970. It was opened by Archbishop Murphy of Cardiff on 24 October 1975. Church and presbytery were built on a restricted site adjacent to the shopping centre of a large new housing development. Because of the constricted site, the church was designed with a large narthex space equipped with kitchen facilities and WCs and the presbytery was combined with the church building. The church seated 240 people. The architects were F. R. Bates, Son & Price of Newport, the builders Noel T. James Ltd of Newport.

Description

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

The main body of the church is rectangular on plan, with a part-glazed circular lantern over the sanctuary, a projection housing the Blessed Sacrament chapel at the east end and a narthex across the full width of the west end. A presbytery is attached to the north. The building is steel framed, clad with buff facing bricks laid in stretcher bond. The roofs have felted metal decking. The lantern was originally clad with copper, now replaced in steel.

The west front is single-storeyed and blind, apart from two entrance doors. The main roof slopes gently upwards from the west to the lantern. The south side wall has a single large trapezoidal window opening tapering towards the west (the original design had four strip windows). The north side of the church is obscured by the two-storey presbytery, which has a rendered upper storey and a monopitch roof.

The western entrance doors lead into the top-lit narthex/hall space which has modernistic openings to the main church space. The body of the church is rectangular, with a carpeted floor and a low suspended ceiling. The large window on the (liturgical) south wall has decorative panels of dalle de verre (resin-bonded) coloured glass. A plaque beneath records that the windows were designed and made at Prinknash Abbey by Brother Gilbert (Taylor) and donated by the children of the primary school in October 1975. The altar is placed under the circular lantern. Behind it is a wide opening filled with a delicate wrought iron screen. Beyond is the Blessed Sacrament chapel, with small windows on each side with coloured glass and tabernacle set against the blind east wall.

Heritage Details