In penal times Catholics in Glamorgan persisting in the practice of their faith were served by priests resident at Llanarth Court, Monmouthshire, and by itinerant priests, mostly Jesuit. Many recusants were imprisoned or died in Cardiff gaol, amongst them the Rev. Philip Evans S.J. and the Rev. John Lloyd, who were executed at Gallows Field, Roath, in July 1679. In the eighteenth century Catholics were served from Pyle, then Bristol and (from 1804) Usk.

By 1830 the Catholic population of Cardiff had grown to about 1000, driven in large part by Irish immigration. The Rev. Patrick Mellua was the first resident priest, appointed in 1839 and taking up residence at 38 Bute Street, where he converted the ground floor into a chapel. In 1841 Bishop Brown OSB, Vicar Apostolic of the Welsh Vicariate, described the ‘densely crowded ground floor of the cottage, from which the window frame must be removed on Sundays in order that hundreds exposed to the weather in the roofless backyard, may discharge their religious duties’. Efforts began to secure a site for a permanent church and presbytery, and eventually one was acquired on Bute Terrace, where a church dedicated to St David opened on 19 October 1842. A major donor was Lady Catherine Eyre of Bath, who gave £3000 for the building of churches in Swansea and Cardiff, with the stipulation that they should be dedicated to the patron saint of Wales. The church was a plain neo-Norman design by J. J. Scoles (Little). A presbytery was built alongside the church in 1843.

In 1853 Bishop Brown entrusted Cardiff to the care of the Institute of Charity (Rosminian Order). By 1860-1 the Catholic population of the town had grown to 10,000, a third of the total population, and the church of St Peter at Roath (qv) was built. In 1882 the Rosminians handed care of the St David’s mission to the diocese, and with the help of the Marquess of Bute, a new church was built on Charles Street by the Rev. (Mgr) W. Williams. This was built from designs by the London firm of Pugin & Pugin, and the contractor was John Devlin of Glasgow. It was opened and consecrated by Bishop Hedley on 24 May 1887. The church was built without aisles or a chancel arch, to afford an unobstructed view of the enormous high altar and reredos, made by Boultons of Cheltenham at a cost of £1,000. On either side of the sanctuary arch were side altars to Our Lady and the Sacred Heart, also with tall gothic canopies. The total building cost was just over £11,000. The old church became a parish hall (it was later demolished).

In 1897 the hitherto plain walls of the interior were painted with a comprehensive cycle of murals by R. J. Hopkins. At the same time new stained glass windows depicting saints were installed in the chancel, in memory of Mgr Williams, builder of the church, who died in 1895 (The Tablet, 1897).

In March 1920 St David’s became the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Cardiff, created in 1916. In January 1925 a seated statue of St Peter, a copy of that in St Peter’s in Rome which had been displayed in the Catholic Oratory at the British Empire Exhibition, was presented to the cathedral (The Tablet, 31 January 1925). (This is no longer in the cathedral, but a similar statue – possibly this one – is now in St Michael’s, Newport, qv).

On 3 March 1941 the cathedral was seriously damaged by incendiary bombs, necessitating the requisition and adaptation of the old church/parish hall to serve as a temporary pro-cathedral.

In the immediate post-war years consideration appears to have been given to building a new cathedral on a different site in the city. In 1947 the fifth Marquess of Bute gave Cardiff Castle and Bute Park to the City of Cardiff, stating that the Catholic community should be allowed to build a new cathedral in the park, alongside the castle. In the early 1980s the wealthy Catholic philanthropist Julian Hodge offered to underwrite the cost of such a project and designs were prepared for a centrally-planned circular church. The possibility was taken sufficiently seriously for a foundation stone to be blessed by Pope John Paul II on the occasion of his Cardiff in June 1982. However the foundation stone and plans remain in store and the proposal, which was highly controversial, has not been pursued (although the archdiocese still owns the land).

Post-war building restrictions meant that reconstruction did not become possible until 1953, under the direction of Thomas Price of F. R. Bates, Son & Price of Newport. The War Damage Commission stipulated that reconstruction should be in two phases, each separately tendered. First was the roof, reinstated in 1953 by Messrs Graham, while the remaining work was undertaken by E. Turner & Sons of Cardiff between February 1956 and late January 1959. The second phase included the completion of the tower to Pugin & Pugin’s original unexecuted design, with a bell stage (built as a reinforced concrete box with a thin stone cladding), rebuilding of the chancel (with a new round window) and new and enlarged sacristies. Austerity and timber shortages necessitated the use of steel in the roof structure, with laminated mahogany trusses. The internal decorative scheme and fitting out was modern in form and spirit, with plain painted plaster walls replacing the former polychromy.

The new high altar, like its predecessor, was made by Boultons of Cheltenham, but was much simpler in form, with a tall geometrically-patterned reredos; a vast corona in the form of an inverted cone was suspended over it. A carved oak bishop’s throne was brought from Belmont Abbey. Wrought iron screens separated the central part of the sanctuary from the side altars, which were furnished with statues by David John. In the nave, a futuristic-looking pulpit was placed in front of the communion rails, and a fine set of ceramic Stations of the Cross by Adam Kossowski was added. An organ built by the John Compton Organ Company was installed at the liturgical west end, and an electronic carillon fitted in the new bell tower. The building was solemnly re-opened on 2 March 1959, almost exactly nineteen years after the bombing.

In 1979-81 a new clergy house was built on Charles Street from designs by F. R. Bates, Son & Price (main contractors Noel T. James of Newport). This provided accommodation for the curia and domestic accommodation for cathedral staff, and was linked to the cathedral by a cloistered walkway.

Post-Vatican II reordering has involved the removal of most of the 1950s sanctuary furnishings as well as the nave pulpit, and has seen the installation of a forward altar and new sanctuary floor. More recently, the choir stalls at the east end of the nave have been removed, and the 1950s paint scheme (for example in the high altar reredos) toned down.

In 2010 the former Ebeneser Chapel of 1855 opposite the cathedral was acquired, repaired and adapted to serve as a community facility for St David’s, with a grant of £1.2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The building was opened by HRH Prince of Wales in December 2016.

Description

The list entry (below) provides a fairly full architectural description, but says little about the furnishings. As described above, the interior was fully refurnished in the 1950s, but most of the sanctuary furnishings and the nave pulpit have been removed in subsequent reordering.

The church is not conventionally orientated, but this description follows liturgical convention (assuming the main altar is to the east).

The sanctuary has a polished marble floor and forward altar of circa 1990 (the Boulton one of the 1950s cut down and brought forward?). Against the east wall within a shallow chancel, the geometrical 1950s reredos survives, with the tabernacle placed against it and a pointed monstrance recess above, reached by a projecting external staircase. The bishop’s throne was brought from Belmont Abbey after the war, and is now placed against the right hand respond of the chancel recess, minus its oak canopy. To either side of the chancel, pointed triangular reredoses of the side altars remain, but the altars have been removed. There is a disused elaborate timber gothic altar in the chapel to the right of the sanctuary.

Five recesses give off either side of the broad, aisleless nave. Until recently the three western recesses on each side contained confessionals, and were given paired lancet windows, while the two eastern bays contained altars and were provided with circular windows. There is now only one confessional on each side, in the westernmost bay before the gallery. Working from east to west, the recesses contain:

North side:

1. Sacred Heart altar: a stone gothic altar by Boulton of Cheltenham, surviving from the original Pugin &Pugin church, with 1950s painted stone low wall at chapel entrance (this was previously the St John the Baptist chapel; the Sacred Heart altar was in the sanctuary).
2. Altar of Our Lady of Penrhys: formerly St Joseph’s altar, another stone gothic altar by Boulton from the Pugin & Pugin church, with carved panels of the Flight into Egypt and the Carpenter’s Shop. Under the raised central canopy is an oak statue of Our Lady of Penrhys, by Mother Concordia OSB of Minster Abbey, Kent, installed in 1992. 1950s painted stone low wall at the chapel entrance.
3. In former confessional recess, an oak statue of St David by Beatrice Fannon, 2015.
4. In former confessional recess, a pieta.
5. Confessional.

South side:

1. Archway to ambulatory leading to sacristies (where a fine brass eagle lectern –by Hardman? – is placed in a corner).
2. Carved Gothic stone altar to the Cardiff martyrs Saint John Lloyd and St Philip Evans S.J. with modern statues of the saints under canopies on the outer pedestals. Made by Boulton for the Pugin & Pugin church, in memory of the Rev. Stephen Bruno I.C. and originally dedicated to St Anne.
3. In former confessional recess, a statue of Pope (St) John Paul II, made for the Pope’s 1982 visit to Cardiff by the apprentices of Wimpey Construction UK (South Wales region). (They also made the ambo in the sanctuary).
4. In former confessional recess, reproduction of Rubens’ painting of the prodigal son.
5. Confessional.

Placed on the square piers between the recesses and the gallery front are Adam Kossowski’s fine coloured ceramic Stations of the Cross.

The baptistery at the west end (base of the tower) retains its original encaustic tile floor, and a tapering font of the 1950s, repeating the lozenge pattern found elsewhere in the cathedral. The baptistery also contains a large and powerful bronze sculpture of St John the Baptist, by Sir William Goscombe John, signed and dated 1895.

The cathedral contains much stained glass: in alternating clerestorey windows, in the chapel recesses, in the baptistery, and at the west end. Much of this glass predates (survived) the bombing. The finest is at the large five-light, two-tier window at the west end, in memory of Alderman Patrick Carey, Mayor of Cardiff 1894-5 (d. 1910), the central panel depicting Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, with Old Testament figures, Popes Pius IX and X, and numerous other figures. Published sources give no artists or dates for the stained glass windows of the cathedral; they merit further study.

The building retains its 1950s light fittings and nave seating.

List descriptions

Cathedral

Reference Number: 13671
Grade: II  
Date of Designation: 19/05/1975  
Date of Amendment: 30/04/1999  
Name of Property: St David’s Roman Catholic Cathedral  
Unitary Authority: Cardiff  
Community: Castle  
Easting: 318569  
Northing: 176430  
Street Side: W  
Location: Opposite Ebeneser Chapel.  

History: 1884-1887 by Pugin and Pugin, architects. Built as RC parish church and raised to cathedral status 1920; gutted after incendiary bomb attack, 1941. Restoration in 1950s by F R Bates, Son, and Price; reopened 1959.  

Exterior: Gothic building of serious, severe Early English design. Normal alignment reversed, with entrance to E gable end. Coursed rock-faced Pennant stone with red sandstone ashlar dressings; slate roofs. 8-bay nave; windows of 2 lights with cinquefoils over. On ground floor, stepped buttresses break forward; doorway to L, then 3 confessionals, and then 3 gabled chapels; taller gable to R end bay. East front has low 2-centred doorway with flat head to doors and Gothic traceried tympanum; flanked by side-lights and then by tall buttresses; tall 5-light window with geometric tracery; statue in niche over. Four stage tower to L has low spire (originally bellcote), angle buttresses, 2 louvred lancets to bell stage, canopied statue of saint in niche between 2 windows; polygonal stair turret to S. In R (north) angle between front and nave has polygonal bay enclosing stair; lancets, slate roof; 2-light window to nave, above. Sanctuary of 2 bays (tall windows with quatrefoil heads); west end (ritual E end) has round window with honeycomb tracery, and projecting stair bay below.  

Interior: Spidery arch-braced and hammer-beam roof of timber and steel has tall wall posts on stone corbels. Front entrance to lobby with baptistery to S, stair to N; above lobby, stone gallery with 3 segmental arches to nave; arcaded parapet, organ chamber to S. In aisleless nave of 7 bays, square piers form superarches over clerestorey windows; side chapels and confessionals. Tall sanctuary arch, diapered reredos below round window with honeycomb tracery, marble floor to sanctuary. Late C19 stained glass in every other side window: W window has Visions of the Immaculate Conception witnessed by popes.  

Reason for designation: Included despite consequences of war damage as rare example of large-scale Roman Catholic church by important C19 Catholic architect.  

Ebeneser Chapel (Cornerstone building)

Reference Number: 13668
Grade: II  
Date of Designation: 19/05/1975  
Date of Amendment: 30/04/1999  
Name of Property: Ebeneser Chapel (URC)  
Unitary Authority: Cardiff  
Community: Castle  
Easting: 318611  
Northing: 176465  
Street Side: E  
Location: Opposite St David’s Cathedral.  

History: Opened in 1855 as the Charles Street Congregational Church. Designed by R G Thomas of Newport. Became Ebeneser when old chapel demolished to make way for St David’s shopping precinct, circa 1976, when buttresses dramatically reordered to keep wall-foot dry. The romantic story that the many coloured stonework was the result of the architect’s writing to every head of state in the world for stone as a symbol of God’s dominion over the whole world is less likely to be true than that the stone was imported as ballast in returning coal ships (See ‘The Building Stones of Cardiff’).  

Exterior: Gothic style church above school hall. Faced in many coloured rubble with Bath stone dressings; slate roof. Main entrance to church via wide flight of steps in western elevation which has Gothic doorway with ball flower ornamentation and columns and doors with elaborate iron hinges; over the doorway, a large window of five cusped lights and circular foil; window and doorway flanked by slender full height ashlar buttresses with octagonal pinnacles with gablets. A single light window in each end bay of western elevation. A curved flight of steps rises from each side of Western light windows to doorways in sides. Nave of five bays, with porch and gallery in westernmost bay; large buttresses in side elevations of nave, pierced by arches at their base. Windows of side elevations of two-lights with daggers or foils over. Entrances to church hall also in side elevations.  

Interior: Interior of Church has plastered walls, a hammer-beam nave roof with scissors trusses, tall and slender chancel arch, lattice boarding to gallery front and to ground floor partition at west end of nave. West gallery supported by single cast-iron column with foliage capital. Stained glass, W window of 1855 with angels in tracery lights; “Light of the World”, by W Davies & Son of Cardiff; War Memorial window by Daniells & Fricker.  

Reason for designation: Attractive and early example of Gothic Revival chapel. Group value.  

Boundary walls and piers to churchyard of Ebeneser Chapel

Reference Number: 13670
Grade: II  
Date of Designation: 19/05/1975  
Date of Amendment: 30/04/1999  
Name of Property: Boundary Walls & Piers to Churchyard of Ebeneser URC  
Unitary Authority: Cardiff  
Community: Castle  
Easting: 318588  
Northing: 176466  
Street Side: E  
Location: To front and side of Chapel.  

Exterior: Small churchyard enclosed by boundary walls of C19, probably contemporary with the church. On Western side, before main elevation, a low dwarf wall of stone with deep moulded coping. Piers in centre and at ends, each with four gablets. Centre gates of wood, incorporating cusped metal panelling. Most of northern boundary wall of stone rubble with brick coping; western part of northern wall as western boundary wall. Two piers at eastern end of northern boundary wall.  

Reason for designation: For group value with chapel and former school room.  

School room to rear of Ebeneser Chapel

Reference Number: 13669
Grade: II  
Date of Designation: 19/05/1975  
Date of Amendment: 30/04/1999  
Name of Property: Former School Room to Rear of Ebeneser Chapel  
Unitary Authority: Cardiff  
Community: Castle  
Easting: 318629  
Northing: 176473  
Street Side: E  
Location: To rear of Ebeneser Chapel.  

History: 1871, by W D Blessley.  

Exterior: Rectangular block with Gothic motifs built against apsidal end of church and connected to it on its northern side by a short corridor wing with a six-light unglazed opening in its front wall. Schoolroom faced externally in stone. Slate roof. At northern end of south-west elevation, facing towards Charles Street and to north of corridor wing there is a tall narrow gabled porch flanked to each side by a narrow single light window. At the south end of the same elevation there is a further gabled porch. Church parlour of 1889 built against southern elevation; gabled south-west elevation of church parlour has a flat-roofed ground floor projection with a blind rectangular centre panel flanked to each side by a short paired lancet window. From north to south, rear elevation of schoolroom has two-light windows with daggers over, blocked doorway, two external stone chimneys and a single window.  

Reason for designation: Listed for group value with chapel.  

The post ++Cardiff – Metropolitan Cathedral of St David appeared first on Taking Stock.

The Cynon district first began to be served by a priest around 1874, when the mission at Aberdare was established. Fr O’Reilly, the priest of Aberdare, would travel around the area to say Mass and administer the Sacraments. When the church of Our Lady of Lourdes was opened at Mountain Ash in 1900 the small number of Abercynon Catholics would travel there for Mass. Around 1910 the population of Abercynon began to increase as miners and their families moved to find work in the local coalmines; many amongst these were Irish and Italian. In 1921 a building fund was established to raise funds for the construction of a Catholic church, and in 1925 a site (previously used as a tip) was acquired. On 26 September the foundation stone of a church-hall was laid by T. T. Callaghan JP KCSG and blessed by Archbishop Mostyn of Cardiff. Work was completed in September 1927. This was the time of the Great Depression and mass local unemployment; during construction of the church Fr Carroll-Baillie organised a group of volunteers, including many unemployed miners, to build a Lourdes grotto and shrine at the rear of the site, overlooking the confluence of the Rivers Cynon and Taff. Three local wells were diverted into one and were dedicated as a Holy Well. Cardinal Bourne of Westminster visited the church and grotto in October 1927. Following reports of cures and blessings the site became a popular place of pilgrimage, known as ‘the Welsh Lourdes’.

In 1974 the then parish priest, Fr Shore oversaw the replacement of the timber built parish hall with a replacement by F. R. Bates, Son & Price. In recent decades the grotto had fallen into disrepair and become overgrown, but as a result of a fundraising campaign launched in 2011 it is once again restored.

Description

The building is a gabled hut-type chapel with rendered walls likely constructed of brick and a shallow-pitched concrete pantile roof. The church is of eight bays, with mainly segmental-arched windows, arranged in three tiers on the entrance elevation. A lean-to porch at the west end is a later addition, while a hipped lean-to at the east end contains sacristies etc.

Inside, the small porch leads to the rear of the nave; there is a meeting room to the south and WCs to the north. The roof is lightweight open timber construction and is set on brick pilasters. The nave is of five bays and the sanctuary two; there is some coloured stained glass in the windows. There are matching terrazzo altars with statues of the Sacred Heart and Our Lady to the north and south and statues of St Patrick and St Augustine on the west wall. The floor throughout is timber, while the stepped sanctuary has some carpeting. The altar and font (located within the sanctuary) are hardwood veneered and mid-twentieth century in date. There is a pitch pine panelled ambo and behind the altar is a painted panelled and canopied reredos with a brass tabernacle. The foundation stone is to the north and there are statues of St Joseph and the Holy Infant to the north and St Anthony to the south. Doors lead off to the sacristy and a confessional.

The post Abercynon – St Thomas appeared first on Taking Stock.

Aberdare developed rapidly in the nineteenth century following the discovery of rich seams of coal and iron ore. From 1830 to 1861 the population grew from 3,000 to 32,000, reaching a peak of 43,000 in 1900. As in many industrial areas of South Wales, this increase included many Catholic immigrant workers and their families, mainly from Ireland but also from Italy. Initially the Catholic community was served by travelling missionary priests from Abergavenny, Brecon, and Cardiff, with Mass being said in various properties in the town including the Bailey Arms, the Cross Keys and the Cardiff Castle Inn. A mission was established in 1854, by the Rev. Augustine Neary (evidenced by baptismal registers and the Golden Jubilee window of 1904).

By the early 1860s Aberdare was serving Treforest, Mountain Ash, Hirwaun, and Ferndale. It acquired its own mission priest (the Rev. John Dawson) in 1866, who with the help of local supporters (Mrs Russell and Mrs Evans) was able to secure funds to build a church and presbytery. Construction began in 1866 and the church was opened on 3 October 1868. The Cardiff Times reported:

‘On Sunday last the Catholic Church just erected at Aberdare— whose incumbent is the Rev. John Dawson, who by his kindness of heart and urbanity of manner, is well respected by all—was solemnly opened by the Right Rev. Bishop Brown. The ceremony commenced with high mass, coram episcopo, or in the presence of the bishop, who, vested in his pontificals, occupied a throne on the left side of the chancel. The Rev. Peter Lewis, of Swansea, sang the mass, assisted by the Rev. Fathers J. Vaughan, of Belmont Priory, near Hereford, and F. Signini, of Cardiff, as deacon and sub-deacon. Several of the catholic clergy were also present. The church was densely filled by a respectable congregation of both catholics and non-catholics, who displayed a very friendly feeling on the occasion. Haydn’s No. 1 Mass was beautifully rendered by the catholic choir of Swansea, assisted by catholic singers from Newport, &c. The Bishop preached an impressive sermon, which was attentively listened to. After mass luncheon was served at the Cardiff Castle Hotel, of which a very large company partook. The evening service consisted of vespers, followed by a sermon by the Very Rev. Prior Vaughan, of Belmont Priory, and solemn benediction. An equally numerous and attentive congregation was present. The church is a simple but ecclesiastical-looking and substantially-built edifice. Its architectural features are derived from types which exist in the ancient christian churches of Syria. The internal dimensions are 60 feet by 32, and 36 feet in height; and altogether, including the gallery, the church will seat upwards of 400 persons. Attached to the church is a convenient presbytery, or residence for the priest, which is approached from the street through a garden court very tastefully laid out. The cost of the buildings, including church, presbytery and boundary walls, the altar, which is of stone, the benches, &c., together with architect’s fees, has been under £1,100. The work appears to be well executed. The architect is Mr. B. Bucknell, of Swansea, and the builder Mr. Richards of Aberdare’.

The Rev. Armand Hamelin, described as a ‘genial little French Abbe’ served at Aberdare from 1877 to 1882, and built the first Catholic school in the area as well as the school-chapels at Mountain Ash and Hirwaun. In 1881 a cottage hospital financed by the Marquess of Bute (the Bute Hospital) was established in the town; it was run by the Sisters of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who ministered in the parish from 1881-1912.

At an undetermined date during the time of the Rev. James O’Reilly (1882-1911) the baptistery, sacristy, and Sacred Heart chapel were added. Fr O’Reilly was also responsible for the completion of the chapel-school at Hirwaun and the building of the present church at Mountain Ash. The architect for the latter was Bernard Smith of London, and it is quite possible that he prepared the designs for the additions to St Joseph’s too. Alternatively, they might be early designs by F. R. Bates, who had a penchant for polygonal projections (cf Ferndale, 1912). In 1910 the Sacred Heart chapel was furnished with stained glass by Hardman & Co of Birmingham in honour of Sr Gonzaga, who ministered in the church, school and mission from 1885-1910 (The Tablet, 26 March 1910).

The presbytery was extended in the 1920s. Later, the Rev. John Cahalane (parish priest 1955-70) carried out alterations and improvements to the value of £15,000, including a new organ, sanctuary reordering and replacement of tile floors with Rhodesian teak. More recent changes have involved the conversion of the baptistery to an entrance, and removal of the plaster ceiling in the nave, revealing the original timber roof construction. Six painted copper panels from the former high altar have been salvaged and remounted on the east wall of the sanctuary.

Today the church is clustered with Mountain Ash and Hirwaun, and is served from Mountain Ash.

Description

The church is in neo-Romanesque style (or Syrian, as described in the Cardiff Times, 1868). On plan it consists of an aisleless nave with later polygonal side chapel and western baptistery, and a lower square-ended sanctuary with single-storey attachments. It is built of randomly coursed stone with yellow sandstone dressings (some of which are painted) and slate roof coverings. The gabled entrance front has a central round arched doorway with tympanum carved with an alisée patée cross. Above is a stepped round-headed triple lancet window. The polygonal baptistery abuts the entrance to the south, with carved reliefs of the heads of Our Lord and Our Lady on either side of a pointed trefoil-headed entrance. The polygonal chapel projecting from the south side of the nave has two round-headed windows; beyond this are two short round-headed lancets with a round window above and two single larger round-headed lancets with higher cills. At the east end the sanctuary is gabled and is under a lower ridgeline; a single large round window is placed centrally. Above, the east wall of the nave has been faced with slate. There is a projecting room to the south, a lean-to brick outhouse to the east and the sacristy and presbytery are beyond. On the north side is a paved area and approach to the church and presbytery. The north elevation has two pairs of round-headed lancets, each with a round window above, and single larger round-headed lancets in the other two bays. There is a doorway with red brick surround beneath one of the larger windows.

Inside, a stair in the northwest corner of the in the narthex leads up to the gallery. Below is a confessional, its doors with stained glass of Art Deco character. To the southwest is the former baptistery, now used as the regular entrance porch, its floor of reconstituted marble with large marble blocks and central pointed quatrefoil detail. There is a stained glass window of St John the Evangelist (in memory of John Breheney d. 1980). South of the baptistery is the Sacred Heart chapel. It is raised up one step and has ornate painted steel and brass gates with a painted central detail of the Sacred Heart; the floor has encaustic tiles and the marble altar is set on a reconstituted marble step. There is a timber statue of the Sacred Heart on the altar and stained glass and a brass plate in honour of Sr Gonzaga. A carved wooden relief of St Joseph and the infant Christ is in memory of Danny and Agnes Rees.

The nave is of three bays, with a teak floor; the walls are plastered and painted and the ceiling is timber and barrel vaulted. A plain round arch with chamfering at the sides separates the nave from the sanctuary. On either side of the sanctuary arch are plaster statues of Our Lady of Fatima and St Joseph with the infant Christ, and over the arch is a banner of St Joseph. The sanctuary is raised above the nave by two steps and has a forward altar of reconstituted marble with an applied relief of the Last Supper.

The following furnishings are of note:

• Six painted copper panels on the east wall of the sanctuary feature saints and religious; from left to right, St Vincent de Paul, St Catherine of Siena, St Juliana Falconieri, St Thomas Aquinas, St Aloysius Gonzaga; and St Hildegard of Bingen. They formed part of the reredos of the original high altar and were recently recovered and reinstated in the sanctuary. The date and artist have not been established.
• The three windows in the first bay of the north side depict the Eucharist (dated 1906), St David, and St Patrick; they all appear to be by the same manufacturer.
• The window in the following bay depicts Our Lady of Good Counsel, after the image in the Augustinian church at Genazzano, near Rome.
• The window of the easternmost bay on the north side depicts Our Lady of Lourdes; the inscription states it was fitted in 1894 in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the foundation of the mission.
• The three windows in the first bay of the south side depict St James, St Peter, and St Paul; they all appear to be by the same manufacturer.
• The window in the following bay depicts St Michael and the souls in purgatory.
• The window of the easternmost bay on the south side depicts the Betrothal of Our Lady and St Joseph.
• The windows in the Sacred Heart Chapel of St Aloysius and Bl. Margaret Mary are by Hardman & Co. and were installed in 1910.
• A Baroque brass and marble holy water stoup in the sacristy is said to be French (so possibly given by Fr Hamelin, mission priest 1877-82). It has hinged doors with repoussé reliefs of the Annunciation, a baptism, knights receiving Holy Communion, and ordinations.

*Update*

The church and presbytery were listed Grade II in June 2023, following Taking Stock. List descriptions at:’

https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=&id=87886

https://cadwpublic-api.azurewebsites.net/reports/listedbuilding/FullReport?lang=&id=87895

The post Aberdare – St Joseph appeared first on Taking Stock.

Abergavenny was one of the old centres of Catholicism; the town’s medieval Benedictine Priory was dissolved in 1542 and is now the Church in Wales parish church. A strong Catholic presence continued in the area after the Reformation. The town was the birthplace of the martyr (St) David Lewis SJ (b. 1616) and his uncle the Ven. Augustine Baker OSB (b. 1575). The earliest post-Reformation Catholic chapel in the town was established in the seventeenth century in the high street home of Thomas Gunter, an attorney (now known as Gunter Mansion). Mass was celebrated there by (St) David Lewis as well as the martyrs Blessed Philip Powel OSB and (St) Philip Evans SJ. The chapel’s location had been forgotten until 1907 when the secret chamber was discovered in the attic, with a remarkable set of frescoes. The Gunter chapel was succeeded by a chapel built in Monk Street.

In 1687 following the succession of James II, the Franciscan Recollects established a house in in the town, one of nine new residences in Great Britain; it was located in Frogmore Street and belonged to one Peter Morgan. A chapel was constructed to the rear of the house in the early eighteenth century, enlarged in 1830 to house the growing influx of Irish Catholics; it served as the Catholic church for the town until 1860, when the church of Our Lady and St Michael was completed. The Franciscan Recollects left Abergavenny in 1857 and the mission was transferred by Bishop Brown of Newport and Menevia to the English Benedictine congregation.

The present church was built by Fr Wilfrid Price, the first Benedictine incumbent. The foundation stone was laid on 19 May 1858 and the building was solemnly opened and blessed by Bishop Brown on 15 May 1860. The architect was Benjamin Bucknall, who had trained in the office of Charles Hansom. When appointed he was aged just 25. The principal benefactors were Mrs Lydia Andrus who provided most of the funds and the total costs for the presbytery, and John Baker Gabb, KSG, Chamberlain to Pope Leo XIII, who paid for the high altar and reredos in memory of his father. The altar designed by Edmund Kirby and carved by A. B. Wall of Cheltenham was erected in 1883; it was unveiled on Rosary Sunday, 7 October. John Baker Gabb died in Rome in 1893 and was buried there but in June 1894 the chantry off the south aisle was built in his memory and is dedicated to the Welsh Martyrs. Following the Second Vatican Council the sanctuary was reordered, with a new forward altar added and the altar rails removed.

Description

The church and many of its furnishings are fully described in the list entry (see below). The following points can also be added:

• A forward facing altar has been added since the Second Vatican Council, incorporating re-used marble along with a newly-carved stone mensa and tracery base.
• A brass memorial on the high altar is in memory of Simon and Lydia Andrus, benefactors of the church.
• A framed painted plaster low-relief of the Crucifixion is located in the baptistery, it is believed to be by Margaret Agnes Rope.
• A small stained glass panel depicting an angel with the Gospels and two keys has been applied to the glass porch screen above the entrance it is likely to be late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
• A painting of St Michael located above the sacristy entrance is by Kenelm Digby, 1861.
• Beside the sacristy entrance is a carved stone medieval holy water stoup fixed on a new stone plinth.
• A stained glass window in the chantry depicts St Benedict and St Ignatius as well as the Ven. Augustine Baker and St David Lewis (‘Charles Baker’); it is dedicated to John Baker Gabb.
• There is a carved marble bust and memorial to Gabb in the south chantry.
• There is a collection of pre-Reformation vestments, a medieval chalice and a fourteenth century Pax housed in the church (not seen).

List description

Reference Number: 2467
Building Number: 10  
Grade: II*  
Date of Designation: 01/11/1974  
Date of Amendment: 10/11/2005  
Name of Property: Church of Our Lady and St Michael R C, including attached Presbytery (No. 10)  
Address: 10 Pen-y-pound  
Unitary Authority: Monmouthshire  
Community: Abergavenny  
Town: Abergavenny  
Locality: Abergavenny  
Easting: 329682  
Northing: 214648  
Street Side: W  
Location: On the west side of Pen-y-pound and one of the varied group of historic buildings on the main north-eastern access to Abergavenny.  

History: Church and presbytery built in 1858-60 and designed by J B Bucknall. The Roman Catholic faith continued in Abergavenny after the Reformation and survived the years of persecution during the C16 and C17 (see No. 39 Cross Street). The first church was built in 1690 and enlarged in 1740, this partially survives still in Frogmore Street. It was replaced by the present one in 1858. This makes the Catholic ministry of Abergavenny the third longest established one in Wales.  

Exterior: Built of local, coursed, squared, purple sandstone rubble with Bath stone quoins and dressings, natural slate roofs with stone chimneys. Comprising church and attached domestic range at right angles, the church in a C14 Decorated Gothic style and the domestic range a C15/C16 late Gothic style, The church to the right (north) has nave, north and south aisles with lean-to roofs and chancel. The east gable faces the road and forms the right hand part of the main elevation. Plinth and stepped buttresses, very large east window in the Decorated manner, 6-lights with an elaborately traceried head, steeply coped gable. The north and south elevations of the chancel are of two bays with further stepped buttresses and 2-light windows. The nave is taller and has six bays separated by strip buttresses to the clerestorey and stepped ones to the aisle. Two-light windows with cusped heads and reticulated tracery above in east walls of aisles. Smaller 2-light windows in north aisle and Decorated ones with cusped lights and quatrefoils in clerestorey. Very steeply pitched roof and coped gables. West end has a 5-light Decorated window over a shafted doorway. To the left the domestic range of the Presbytery. One storey and attic with projecting two storey cross-wing to the left, 1 + 3 bays. Tudor style mullioned windows, and Tudor central door with 4-light transom window over. Late Tudor style hall window on right, 4-lights with king mullion. Three-light mullion-and-transom window to left with small single light window above it. One central steeply gabled half dormer with 2-light window. Steeply pitched roof with stacks behind the ridge. The gabled wing to the left has a 2-light basement window with a 4-light mullion-and-transom window with king mullion above and a 3-light above that. Trefoil in gable above. Photographs show that the one major alteration to this elevation has been the removal of a large chimney stack from the right hand return wall of the projecting wing. Rear elevation not inspected.  

Interior: The church is lofty and well-proportioned with a 6-bay nave. The arcades have slim quatrefoil columns with sharply pointed arches, uncarved blocks for heads and also at the foot of the trusses at clerestorey level. Scissor truss roof with close set secondary rafters and two tiers of purlins; lean-to aisle roofs. The inner west porch was added in the late C20. Elaborate wide and tall stone Decorated style reredos of 1883 designed by Edmund Kirby of Liverpool and carved by A B Wall of Cheltenham. The fine east window has glass by Hardman. Chantry chapel added to the south aisle in 1894 to the memory of the local C17 martyrs and richly decorated with paintings, sculpture and glass, and includes panelling from the demolished Coldbrook House. The furniture of the church is all Victorian. The church also has an exceptionally fine collection of medieval and later vestments. The interior and planning of the Presbytery is little altered with joinery, staircase, fireplaces and plasterwork typical of the period and building type.  

Reason for designation: Included in a higher grade for its exceptional interest as a finely designed and finished Roman Catholic church and presbytery by one of the most notable Victorian architects in Wales; the buildings have retained their character and have group value with the other listed buildings in Pen-y-pound.  

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In 1873 Dom Robert Isidore Green OSB was appointed to the mission at St Mary’s Bridgend, and resolved to establish schools at Aberkenfig. Within five years he was able to raise £1000, and schools were built on the site of a former ore tip on the main road to Maesteg, opened by Bishop Hedley in May 1879. The builder was Edward Preece and the architect George F. Lambert, both of Bridgend (Central Glamorgan Gazette, 9 May 1879). The building was later extended to provide a church, dedicated to St Robert of Newminster, a Cistercian saint of the twelfth century.

In 1924 the independent parish of St Robert of Newminster was created. Two years later a separate school was constructed, at which point the building was used exclusively as a place of worship. A parish hall was built in 1927, planned by Fr Benedict Inizan OSB, the first parish priest.

After 93 years of service the Benedictines left Bridgend in 1949 and the Archdiocese of Cardiff took over responsibility for the church. In 1981 major repairs were carried out and the interior was reordered, including the installation of a new altar dedicated by Archbishop Murphy on 9 July. To mark the millennium, a new stained glass window was installed at the rear of the church, designed by Bianca Thomas, a pupil at St Thomas’ school.

Description

The building is a simple Gothic design consisting of a nave and south transept, with the west porch, north chapel, sanctuary, and sacristies all under lower rooflines. The church is built of randomly coursed rock-faced granite with sandstone dressings and slate roof coverings. At the west end is an octofoil plater tracery window, elsewhere there is a combination of rounded-headed and pointed lancet windows.

The small porch leads into the rear of the nave, one west window has stained glass, installed in 2000 to mark the millennium; designed by Bianca Thomas, it depicts schoolchildren; all other windows are clear. A pipe organ at the west end was installed in the 1950s and is dedicated to the memory of Fr Green, first mission priest of St Robert’s. The nave is aisleless and four bays in length with an arch-braced roof, the timbers partially obscured by panelling. On a plinth on the north wall of the nave is a plaster statue of St Brigid with a Gaelic and Welsh brass inscription plaque. There is a small north chapel the opening of which has quoins, within is a shrine of St Joseph with a modern wooden statue and a large wooden crucifix. A portable modern oak font is also stored here. The sanctuary is up one step, it has north and south windows; the altar is a modern carved and painted stone block type with PX detail. The tabernacle is silvered and cylindrical and set on a high shelf flanked by shelves for six altar candles. At both sides of the sanctuary are oak statues of Our Lady and the Sacred Heart set on matching pitch pine Gothic plinths. To the south is a large transept with a wide arch; within are sacristies, storerooms and a WC.

Text amended by AHP 24.09.2026

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In the late nineteenth century there was a small Catholic community in Abertillery, primarily made up of Irish immigrants working in the local mines. Two local women, Mrs W. H. Brewer and her daughter, were driving forces behind the establishment of a Catholic mission. In 1875 the Capuchin friars arrived in the village. Appealing for support in the pages of The Tablet, Fr Elzear Torreggiani OSF (who had taken charge of the mission at Pontypool in 1860 and later became Bishop of Armidale, New South Wales) described the area as ‘one of the remotest and wildest districts of the county, the inhabitants of which are proverbial, even in a mining district, for their ignorance and brutality’. Mass was said in a public house while funds for a church were raised, the foundation stone for which was laid by John Hedley, Auxiliary Bishop of Newport and Menevia on 5 October 1875. The building was completed and opened the following year, and was used during the week as a school. Its original architect has not been established, but the design bears some similarities with Paul Andre’s Our Lady of the Angels at Cwmbran (1882-3, qv), another of Fr Torrigiani’s churches.

There was no resident priest until 1908. In 1922 a £1500 legacy from John Lancaster, colliery owner, enabled extensive alterations, including the extension of the nave by three bays and the building of a gallery, baptistery and Lady Chapel, from designs by F.R. Bates & Sons of Newport (South Wales Gazette, 16 May 1923). The presbytery is a post-war construction.

Description

The church is was built in two phases, in a simple Gothic style. It is built of random and rubble coursed sandstone with granite quoins, and slate roofs. The ridge of the later three western bays of the nave is higher than that of the original church. The windows of the original structure have yellow brick dressings with gauged arches and granite sills, while the dressings on the western extension are granite with a concrete plinth and sills. The central bay of the west front projects slightly (as at Our Lady of the Angels, Cwmbran), and has a plain pointed arched entrance with a large arched window above and a carved stone cross finial on the gable. Elsewhere, the windows are a combination of single and paired lancets with Y-tracery timber mullions. There is a lean-to plant room to the south of the sanctuary, sacristies are located to the north side and are attached to the presbytery.

Inside, a timber screen with high-level leaded lights screens off the porch from the nave. The nave is of six bays and aisleless; an archway marks the extent of the former west front. It is partially obscured by a modern suspended ceiling, which entirely obscures the roof structure. The ceiling also obscures the west gallery (not inspected). A Lady Chapel gives off the north side; it has a timber panelled altar behind which is an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour set within a tall oak Arts and Crafts style frame. The walls have recently been decorated, with some limited Gothic stencilling, and a portable timber font is located here. There are various painted statues, notably St Isabella in the nave, by Maison Raffl and stamped, ‘La Statue Religieuse – Paris’ and a Madonna and Child, of painted and carved wood and also signed ‘Raffl’. The sanctuary has been extended into the nave, being raised up one step with the original sanctuary arched recess at the east end, also with recent stencilling, There are forward and rear-facing altars, both in carved oak with open Gothic tracery, and there is an oak ambo. The east wall has more Gothic stencilling and a large painted wooden crucifix with a distinctive corona. Above is a truncated lancet window. A painted timber wainscot runs around the perimeter walls, and the floors are carpeted. The sacristy is entered through a door in the north wall; an original sacristy entrance at the east end of the wall is blocked.

Entry amended by AHP 24.09.2026

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Mass began to be said in the lower Rhymney Valley in 1895 with various public halls and schools serving as Mass centres. In December 1903 the Rev. Frederick Dent, mission priest at Rhymney, obtained a plot of land from the Marquess of Bute at Ty Coch in Brithdir. A temporary iron hut chapel was constructed on the site and opened in February 1904 (The Tablet, 20 February 1904); it was dedicated to St Peter and could hold around 200 worshippers. Local miners financed construction by each giving up two days’ pay; a set of Stations of the Cross was given by friends in Dowlais.

Development of the nearby town of Bargoed and an increase in the Catholic population soon necessitated a larger and more permanent church. In September 1915 Fr Dent purchased an English Congregational Chapel on Usk Road in Bargoed, which had been built in about 1903 at a cost of £1000. It became the Catholic church of St Peter on the Graig and continued to be served from Rhymney. The opening was marked by a procession from St John’s, Rhymney to the new church. The tin hut chapel at Brithdir was sold to the British Legion.

The church was altered and extended in 1933-4, increasing the capacity to 430. In effect, it was rebuilt. The orientation was changed, a larger sanctuary and polygonal apse added at the east end, a gallery installed at the west end, flat-roofed sacristies added and reinforcing work carried out to the retaining wall along Usk Road. A pulpit was given as a gift to the parish priest Fr Mahoney from his former parishioners at Dowlais. The church was formally reopened by Archbishop Mostyn of Cardiff in October 1934. Subsequent chapels-of-ease were established at Tirphil (in a workman’s hall) and Tiryberth (in a Scout hall), but both closed in 1943. There was also a Catholic chapel in Markham. Thomas and Teresa O’Connor-Sinnott donated the large crucifix in 1939, originally accompanied by statues of Our Lady and St John; a brass plate commemorating the presentation is in the narthex.

The church was reordered in 1975, with a new stone altar and sanctuary furnishings. A false ceiling and a WC were also added. The church was rededicated by Archbishop Murphy of Cardiff on 7 April 1976. The sanctuary was repainted and the external rendering renewed in 2001.

Over the years various local houses have served as a presbytery, including Penrhos at Hillside Park, 46/48 Park Place, and 15 Capel Street; today there is no presbytery and the church is served from St Thomas, Abercynon (qv).

Description

The church is built into a sloping site. It is of longitudinal plan, brick built and rendered with slate and felt roof coverings. The church is aisleless and of six bays, with a flat-roofed extension at the west end, an entrance on the south side, a polygonal apse at the east end and a north transept at the same ridge height as the main body of the church. A simple metal cross is placed on the east wall of the apse and windows throughout are tall and rectangular with concrete sills.

Inside, there is a narthex with piety stall, sacristy and kitchenette leading off and a stair to the gallery above. A glazed screen separates the narthex from the nave and the WCs are accessed from the northwest corner of the nave. The nave is of three bays, the floor throughout is carpeted and there is a modern false ceiling. A wide central arch with two smaller flanking arches separate the nave from the sanctuary and side chapels. The altar is modern and of cut and polished stone with an applied six-point star. Beyond the altar and up a further step is the brass tabernacle, set on a hardwood plinth with retables either side, above is a good painted crucifix, all that remains of a rood group given by Thomas and Teresa O’Connor-Sinnott (see plaque in narthex). There is a modern hardwood ambo, the pews are also modern and hardwood, to the front of these is a matching painted steel and hardwood rail. The Sacred Heart chapel is to the south and a Lady Chapel to the north; beside the Lady Chapel is a confessional and an emergency exit. The chapels have matching oak veneered modern altars with plaster statues. Beside the Sacred Heart chapel is a painted plaster statue of St Philomena.

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The modern development of Barry as a dock began in the 1880s, led by the industrialist David Davies of Llandinam. The working town of Barry Dock was developed as a network of streets of terraced housing on either side of Holton Road, the main shopping street. A priest, Fr Hyland, was appointed to the town in 1889, and Mass was said at various locations, including the Cadoxton home of a young Irish doctor, P. J. O’Donnell (who was instrumental in getting the mission established), and the Wenvoe Arms Hotel. The one-acre site of the present church was acquired with the help of the Jenner family of Wenvoe Castle, and a dual purpose school-chapel was opened by Bishop Hedley on 9 May 1892. Built at a cost of £1,700 from designs by Seward & Thomas of Cardiff and Barry Dock (contractors E.R. Evans & Brothers of Holton Road, Barry), the building was described in The Barry Dock News as ‘domestic Gothic, pleasing in appearance both exteriorly and interiorly and altogether useful in design and arrangement’. There was room for 240 pupils, with the classrooms divided by partition screens which could be opened to create a single space for use as a chapel. The altar was placed in a recess in the centre of the largest classroom.

An infants’ school followed in 1898, but it was not until 14 September 1906 that the foundation stone for the present church was laid by Edaliza Sheckell Leonard. The church was opened by Bishop Hedley on 28 April 1907. The Barry Dock News described it as ‘exceedingly chaste and comely in appearance … well and substantially built’ and named the builder as H. S. Rendell of Barry Docks (no architect’s name is given); the cost was £1,150. The church was 92ft in length and 40ft in width, and seated 400. The chief furnishing was a carved oak Gothic high altar by Beylen Brothers of Antwerp, with niches for six statues and a crucifix in a central canopied niche flanked by statues of Our Lady and St John.

A year later, in 1908, the presbytery was built. In 1922 a stone war memorial was erected outside the presbytery on the corner, and a western gallery was added to increase the seating capacity of the church. Shortly afterwards a parish hall was built, and in 1927-8 the presbytery was extended and the church interior remodelled, with new side altars introduced. In 1934-5 a new infants’ school (the present primary school) was built in the presbytery garden.

In the 196os, around the time of the Second Vatican Council, the church was reordered by the Rev (Canon) Laurence Cresci, with the walls and arches of the side chapels removed, so that the sanctuary occupied the full width of the church. The timber high altar was removed and the sanctuary fully refurnished, with a forward stone altar. A new Lady Chapel was added, housing a statue which had been in the church since 1907, and with a medieval altar stone from the ruined medieval church at Highlight incorporated in its altar. The architect for these works has not been established, but stylistically the Lady Chapel looks like the work of the prolific firm of F. R. Bates, Son & Price, who also designed the nearby churches of St Michael and All Angels, Colcot and St Vincent de Paul, Rhoose.

In the 1980s the original school building was demolished and the presbytery refurbished. The church was re-roofed and a new organ installed in 1989.

A major programme of works between 2001 and 2003 saw the replacement of the parish hall with a larger hall, and the internal reordering of the church, with a screen under the gallery and new sanctuary furnishings. After the completion of these works a decision was taken to close the 1960s churches at Colcot and Rhoose, and for St Helen’s to become the centre of a single Barry parish. 2007 saw the centenary of the church, and a new stained glass window by Rachel Phillips was installed at the west end, blessed by Archbishop Peter Smith in 2008.

Description

The main elevation faces roughly south, but this description assumes conventional liturgical orientation, i.e. with the altar to the east.

The church is in a simple lancet Gothic style, with the chief architectural display reserved for the west front. This is faced with neatly-coursed Newbridge stone with Swanage stone dressings (Barry Dock News, 1907). It has a central pointed doorway with drip mould, a staggered group of five lancets above and broad corner piers. The flank walls are faced with yellow brick, with stone dressings to the lancet windows, and the roof is slated. On the liturgical north side, and sitting rather awkwardly with the building, is the rendered and flat-roofed Lady Chapel addition of the 1960s, while on the south side is the large attached parish hall of 2001-3, yellow brick and slate roofs.

The main entrance leads into a narthex under the gallery, formed with a glass screen in circa 2003 and linking through to the parish hall. The interior of the main worship space is a single wide volume, with woodblock floor, plastered and painted walls and a simple open timber roof, also painted. The gallery of 1922 has a frieze of blind trefoils along its timber front.

The sanctuary furnishings are of timber and plain, all dating from circa 2003 apart from a domed brass tabernacle on a wooden plinth in the corner, which may be the original one (although there is another brass tabernacle in the Lady Chapel). As well as the now-lost statues of the high altar and other sanctuary furnishings, the 1907 report of the church opening refers to ‘a beautiful statue of the Immaculate Virgin, designed by Mayer and Co., of Munich, Germany’; this may be the statue now in the Lady Chapel. The font lies near the sanctuary entrance, and is of the tapering form commonly adopted by F. R. Bates, Son & Price; it has an inlaid mosaic of the dove of the Holy Spirit descending. Also typical of these architects is the open metal screen with lozenge divisions in the Lady Chapel. In the nave, the oak pews appear to be the original ones. Around the walls is a fine set of Stations of the Cross, oil painted tableaux of possibly Continental workmanship. There are two noteworthy stained glass windows: a Crucifixion with Our Lady and St John in the three-light window of the sanctuary, by Alexander Beleschenko of Swansea, circa 1980, and a powerful Resurrection in the five-light west window over the gallery by Rachel Phillips, 2008.

The post Barry – St Helen appeared first on Taking Stock.

In 1864 Mgr Thomas Brown OSB, Suffragan Bishop of Newport and Menevia invited the Capuchin Friars of Pantasaph to take charge of the ministry in the Cwmbran district of South Wales. The friars soon established the mission in Blaenavon, with Mass celebrated in a room above a warehouse. In 1868 the present church was constructed as a dual purpose church-school; it was built largely through the benevolence of an unnamed local noblewoman who was a Franciscan tertiary. It is one of a number of churches and school-chapels built in South Wales by the Pantasaph friars; others include Abersychan (1863), Risca (1868), Abertillery (1875-6) and Cwmbran (1882). These buildings are generally of a simple Gothic character and in most cases, as here, their original architect has not been established; they would benefit from further research.

Twentieth century additions to the church include Stations of the Cross erected in memory of John Higgins, and stained glass windows in memory of the Rev. Richard Jennings (d. 1942). The church was reordered following the Second Vatican Council and a new hardwood forward altar installed. Today the church is a chapel-of-ease to St Alban, Pontypool (qv).

Description

The building is a simple pitched roof church with plain Gothic detailing and is the gable entry type; it is constructed of randomly coursed rock-faced granite with sandstone ashlar dressings and slate roof coverings. The adjoining presbytery is rendered. The nave is of three bays, with triple lancet windows in each bay of the south side. At the east end the sanctuary is under a lower ridge line with transepts under a lower line still. The south transept is the sacristy and the north is part of the presbytery. There is a large window at the east end with simple Gothic tracery. The entrance arch is of three orders, above is a niche with a painted stone statue of the Sacred Heart.

Inside, a small vestibule leads into the nave (beside this is the confessional). The floor covering is carpet throughout and the walls are painted cream. The barrel vaulted ceiling is plastered and painted. There is a pointed arch and one step to the sanctuary, with a modern portable font at the north side. The sacristy lies to the southeast and is accessed via a door from the sanctuary. The modern panelled hardwood altar is up three steps with the modern Gothic oak sedilia in front; beyond the altar is the tabernacle on a plinth with retables and candles either side. The Stations of the Cross are painted plaster reliefs set in oak Gothic frames, the first signed Maurice Vanpoulle; a brass memorial records that these and the tabernacle were erected in memory of John Higgins. The windows are slightly Art Deco in style and have simple Christian emblems including crosses and ‘IHS’; a brass memorial records that they are in memory of Fr Richard Jennings (d. 1942), former parish priest.

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As with many towns in South Wales, Bridgend experienced a large influx of Irish immigrants in the wake of the Great Famine of the 1840s and 1850s. At that time the town had no place of Catholic worship, and the faithful travelled to Cardiff or Swansea to receive the sacraments.

In 1852 the Rev. Charles Kavanagh of St David’s Swansea started monthly visits to Bridgend, and Mass was said in a house on the corner of Brackla Street and Chapel Street, the home of John Burke. Before this, in the early nineteenth century, Sir John Nicholl had purchased the Merthyr Mawr estates, where he built Merthyr Mawr House. Three members of his family, Captain Illtyd Nicholl R.N. and his sisters Lucy and Teresa, later converted to Catholicism and in 1855 purchased a piece of land in Ewenny Road for £210, with the intention of establishing a church and school. Other benefactors were Mr and Mrs Boyd Harvey, the third Earl of Dunraven and Miss Honora Godsell. The architect/builder is given in a modern newspaper account (in Douai Archives) as John Jenkins of Bridgend. The church was built in a simple round-arched style of local Quarella (Ewenny) stone, and was completed within a year, the first Mass being said on 9 December 1855. Soon after completion, the church was extended and the orientation changed, with the high altar relocated from the geographic west wall to the north wall; these alterations were completed by 1857 and were paid for by Captain Nicholl and his family. In 1857 Bishop Brown of Newport and Menevia invited the Benedictines to look after the mission and Fr Henry Ignatius Sutton OSB was appointed first resident priest. In the 1890s extensive repairs to the church and presbytery were undertaken by the Fr Raphael White OSB. In 1897 statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Holy Infant and St Joseph were donated by parishioners, and the Stations of the Cross erected. A fine oak altar and reredos by Mayer of Munich were added by Fr Morrell OSB in about 1906.

During World War II the arrival of workers for the newly-constructed munitions factory and American soldiers helped increase the congregation. The priests at St Mary’s said Mass for Italian and German Prisoners of War detained at Wick and Island Farm.

In 1962 the Benedictines withdrew from St Mary’s and the Archdiocese of Cardiff assumed responsibility for the parish. The Rev. James Hennessey was appointed parish priest, and seeing how inadequate the church was for the growing congregation set about extending and renovating the building. Improvements were carried out by the T. G. Price of Bates, Son & Price and were completed by December 1964, when Archbishop Murphy consecrated the church.

In 1994 the Rev. William J. Isaac was appointed and was given the task of addressing the issue of overcrowding at the church. The decision was taken to build a new church, presbytery and hall on the same site, and the last Mass in the old St Mary’s was held in November 1997. The new church was completed twelve months later and the first Mass celebrated on Christmas Day 1998. The architect was Kevyn Davies of Cwmafan, Port Talbot. The concept for the design was based in part on the image of the pelican in her piety, common in Catholic churches but also significant here as it is features on the coat of arms of the Carnes, a local Recusant family. The apse and tower were constructed of stone from the old church. Two artworks in the church are by Kevin Sinnott, great-grandson of John Burke, whose house was one of the early Mass centres in the town. Bishop Regan of Wrexham consecrated the church on 12 March 1999.

Description

The building is a complex comprising church and hall (to the south) with kitchen, meeting room, and WCs, all on one level; there is an attached two-storey presbytery (to the north) and a small car park to the front (southwest). The church is of laminated timber portal frame construction, with the external walling of re-used randomly coursed Ewenny stone and brickwork, some of it rendered. Externally it is dominated by a stone-faced round tower with lead-covered conical roof and a mainly glazed end wall. The roofs are steeply pitched and covered with slate. Beside the entrance is a slate name plaque with an enclosed statue of St Mary.

Inside, a wide narthex provides access to the main worship space, the tower, hall, and WCs; a piety shop is located in the base of the tower. A large glazed screen divides the narthex from the main worship space, which is on a diagonal axis with the tower. The main space is aisled, with a confessional in the northwest corner, the sacristy through the north wall, and the sanctuary at the east end with semi-circular apse, with baptistery (located down one step) to the north and tabernacle to the south. The floor coverings are quarry tiles to the narthex, carpet in the main worship space and green terrazzo to the sanctuary and baptistery. The walls are generally plastered and painted, with areas of exposed stone in the apse and timber panelling to the ceiling. The roof is asymmetrical with high-level windows to the south and east.

New furnishings and re-used items from the former church include:

• The iron gates of the piety shop depicting the Annunciation, and the finial cross on the tower are by Iona McLaggan (a descendant of the Nicholl family) and Eugene Craig; they were made at the Ravens Forge in Merthyr Mawr.
• The narthex screen has a series of square etched glass images of a pelican with the name of the church in English and Welsh and a stained glass panel depicting a standing figure of the Virgin Mary; by Christian Philips of the Swansea School of Architectural Glass, 1998.
• The altar and font are of Portland stone, the altar with a carved cross picked out in gold on the front.
• Paintings of the Crucifixion and the landing of Catholic immigrants, in the apse and baptistery respectively, are by Kevin Sinnott.
• Paintings of St John the Baptist and of Christ’s Baptism in the main worship space at the east end are by Sue McDonagh of Cowbridge.
• The benches, sanctuary furnishings and pulpit are of light oak.
• The ornate tabernacle is silvered and cylindrical, with an engraving of the pelican in her piety on the doors and a sculpted finial of the pelican; it comes from the original church.
• An oak triptych of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, flanked by St Alphonsus Liguori and St Dominic at the east end of the north aisle is also from the former church and was donated by the Boyd Harvey family.
• The Stations are framed wooden low reliefs of 1897, from the original church.
• Polychrome statues of the Virgin Mary with the Holy Infant and St Joseph at the west end are by Mayer of Munich and come from the 1906 reredos of the original church. A statue of the Sacred Heart also by Mayer of Munich is located at the west end, and has a brass memorial to Teresa Nicholl (d. 8 November 1898).
• A re-used stained glass panel of St Benedict is housed in a light box within the narthex.
• There are brass memorials from the former church to the Nicholl family and Julieta Boyd Harvey, dating from 1901 and 1908 respectively.

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