A fairly small and functional red brick design of 1994, on the site of a previous church.

The first church on the site was built in 1924 but was demolished in 1989 on account of structural defects. Some years later a new church was built on the same site, which was opened by Bishop Mullins of Menevia on 28 September 1994. This was designed by the Gammon Partnership of Swansea (ex.inf. Alan Randall, Diocesan Archivist). The church is served from Gorseinon (qv).

Description

St Bride’s is a small church in a modern functional style. The building has a concrete frame, clad in red brick laid in stretcher bond, with brown brick footings and dressings and a pitched roof covered with concrete pantiles. The plan comprises an aisleless nave with a west porch and entrance lobby, a southeast Lady Chapel and a northeast sacristy. At the west end the front slope of the hipped nave roof is carried down over the entrance lobby, whose front wall is of timber and glass with central double doors. The nave side walls have vertical slit windows and there are similar windows in the gabled end wall of the Lady Chapel. The centre of the east wall is set slightly forward with three vertical windows high in the wall under a shallow gable.

Inside the church the walls and roof are plastered and the members of the concrete frame are frankly displayed. The verticals of the frame divide the side walls into bays and the eastern bays on the south side have large rectangular openings to the Lady Chapel. There is no structural separation for the sanctuary, simply a platform across the east end of the building, with a triangular canopy formed in the roof slope above the altar and tabernacle. Apart possibly from the Stations, the furnishings appear to be contemporary with the building and do not call for special mention.

Heritage Details