A modest rectangular building of dual-purpose church and hall character, built in a simple Gothic style by the Benedictines in 1927. The interior is a single space, with a modern suspended ceiling.

The site of the present church was occupied in the later nineteenth century by a pump house building belonging to a colliery known as Cwm Pit, which was disused by the 1890s. In the early 1920s some land here was purchased by a local scrap dealer and given to the Catholic Church as the site for a new place of worship. The church was built in 1927 and opened in November of that year. Building Act plans in West Glamorgan Archives give the builder as Messrs Quinn & Co. Ltd. of Occupation Road, Cardiff; there is no evidence that an architect was involved. The plans show the church as it is now, but with an open roof with metal bracing. The church was originally served by the Benedictines from St Joseph’s in Swansea, but became a separate parish served by diocesan clergy in the 1940s. The building was refurbished in the 1980s, when a suspended ceiling was inserted. The windows have an abstract leading pattern often used by the architects F. R. Bates, Son & Price in their other new buildings and refurbishments in the diocese, which suggests that the firm was responsible for the 1980s work.

Description

The church is a modest building, rectangular on plan. The external walls are faced with pebbledash with red brick window surrounds and detailing, while the pitched roof is covered with Welsh slate. The west end wall has a central gabled porch with a single window set in a brick surround which is carried up to form a bellcote at the apex. The side walls each have six broad pointed windows with brick surrounds. The interior is a single space with a solid carpeted floor, plastered walls and a stepped ceiling of acoustic panels hiding the roof structure. The windows are all clear glazed with an abstract leading pattern. A cambered downstand beam marks the transition from nave to sanctuary in the easternmost bay, which has a small dais. The timber benches could date from the 1920s. There are no furnishings of particular note.

Heritage Details