Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
87872
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
02/02/2024
Date of Amendment
Name of Property
Former Monastery / Clergy House at the Catholic Church of St Mary
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Carmarthenshire
Community
Carmarthen
Town
Carmarthen
Locality
Easting
240370
Northing
220227
Street Side
Location
Situated at the far NW end of Union Street, attached to the SE corner of St Marys.
Description
Broad Class
Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Period
Victorian
History
Constructed c1889 as part of the transfer of the mission at St Mary’s church to the Passionist Order. The Passionist order had been founded in Italy in 1720, and arrived in Britain in 1841. Their mission included a commitment to the care of the poor, and they were particularly active in areas where there had been an influx of people from Ireland: from the 1840s, Carmarthen was home to many Irish refugees from the famine, as well as Irish soldiers stationed in the barracks. The clergy house replaced the original presbytery of 1851-2, built to accommodate the Passionists’ larger religious community, and was designed by the architect Albert Vicars. Vicars was also responsible for carrying out restoration works to the church and had been employed by the Passionists elsewhere, designing the church of St Joseph in Highgate, London. Alterations were carried out c2010 with the insertion of a secondary stair. Windows have also been replaced.
Exterior
Monastery / clergy house. Coursed dressed rubble stone, ashlar dressings, plinth. Slate roof with overhanging eaves, decorative ridge tiles, ridge stacks. Wide small pane casement windows (replacements). 4-bay 3-storey main block facing SE, tripartite windows 24 pane transom gabled dormers with flat heads, windows on ground and first floors 24 pane casements with relieving arches. Entrance to SW, 2-bay, pointed door to left, 16 pane window above, square 12 pane to second floor. To right similar windows but to ground and first floors. Pointed trefoil in gable. 2 ½ storey wing to rear left with cat-slide at ground floor, connects with church. Wide gabled 18-light dormer, similar window below with leaded lights. Ground floor with window to left. Attached to buttressed stone extension from church. Rear elevation to NW, various openings, all with yellow brick dressings. Rear wing with ground floor window. Main block with 2 at ground floor, 4 at first floor, centre windows both small. Single window to second floor with fire escape stair attached. NE elevation with two 16-pane windows to second floor. Single storey extension with gable stack and window, 24-pane window to SE, further lean-to added.
Interior
Axial plan with a corridor across the rear of the main block, repeated across each floor. Straight flight stair at NE end, later stair. Rooms to SE of corridor, Chapel on first floor of rear wing.
Reason for designation
Included primarily for its special historic interest as a clergy house associated with the Passionist Order’s involvement with the church and Catholic mission in Carmarthenshire, and for its connection to a prominent Catholic ecclesiastical architect. Notwithstanding alterations to the interior and exterior it survives largely intact and is also important for its special architectural interest as a substantial late C19 monastery/clergy house.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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