19222

 

II  

Designated  

09/01/1998  

09/01/1998  

Christ Church  

 

Carmarthenshire  

Cwmamman  

Ammanford  

Garnant  

268882  

213452  

E  

Situated some 400m N of A474, on N side of river Amman, in a secluded cul de sac at SE end of Vicarage road.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

In 1828 Lord Dynevor first set out the idea of building a new church in the newly industrialised Amman valley in the vast rural parish of Llandeilo. Robert Ebbels of Wolverhampton was chosen as architect and work began in 1839. The vicar of Llandeilo, Rev. J W Pugh, had previously been vicar of Ettingshall near Wolverhampton where Ebbels had designed the church in 1835. The new church at Cwmamman, built to seat 545, was consecrated 29 July 1842; the interior subsequently modified by restorations in 1878 and 1888.  

Unpainted roughcast with limestone dressings and low-pitched slate roof. Plain Commissioners' Church in the Gothic style with broad nave, shallow chancel, gallery projection to W with small bellcote. W gable front has triple lancets with arched hood moulds with square stops and inset round paterae; leaded diagonal glazing with amber marginal lights, and ornate bargeboards with stylised ballflower decoration and scalloped edges. Single-storey stone porch with simply chamfered stone plinth and coped gable parapets with kneelers; Tudor-arched camfered doorway, plank door with vertical cover strips and big drop handle. Nave has plain lancet windows separated by stepped buttresses, and diagonal buttresses at angles. String course forms drip mould over window heads at impost level. E end has triple lancet, similar to W front. S of chancel small vestry with two C20 windows.  

From vestibule: ahead double-doors into nave, to left dog-leg stair with stick balusters climbs to narrow, raked W gallery. Nave roof of 4 bays with queen-post trusses; the soffits of the tie beams chamfered with pendants below queen posts. Trusses supported at the side by small cast-iron arch-braces rising from plain corbels. Lancet windows in nave have plain chamfered heads and paterae at impost level that form end stops to string band of stylised egg and dart decoration between windows. Later close-boarded pews and fittings. Large organ of 1888. Stained glass: Eroded E window of 1888 by W.G. Taylor of London. Nave N fourth window of 1910, by Jones & Willis. Three by Celtic studios: nave N second window 1958; nave S second window 1972 and fourth 1957.  

Listed as an unusual survival in SW Wales of a Commissioners' Church, historically important as a well-preserved example of a church type associated with rapid growth of population in new industrial districts in mid-C19.