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
87895
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
02/06/2023
Date of Amendment
Name of Property
Presbytery to the Catholic Church of St Joseph
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Rhondda Cynon Taff
Community
Aberdare West
Town
Aberdare
Locality
Easting
300019
Northing
202373
Street Side
Location
On the W side of Monk Street, at its S end on the junction with Pendarren Street. Attached to the W of the church set back behind a garden court.
Description
Broad Class
Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Period
History
Built 1866-8 as part of the construction of the Church of St Joseph and likely to also have been designed by Benjamin Bucknall of Swansea. Extended in the 1920s.
Aberdare, like many towns in the valleys of S Wales, grew rapidly with industrialisation in the C19. The town and its surrounding area was found to have plentiful resources of coal and iron ore and its population expanded from a relative low level of 3,000 in 1830 to 32,000 in 1861 and then to 43,000 in 1900. Much of the population growth was from immigrant workers and their families from Ireland, as well as from Italy.
To cater for the needs of this growing Catholic population in the early-mid C19 travelling priests visited the town from Abergavenny, Brecon and Cardiff with mass said at locations across the town, including the Bailey Arms, The Cross Keys and the Cardiff Castle Inn. The Rev. Augustine Neary established a mission in the town in 1854, which went onto serve Treforest, Mountain Ash, Hirwaun and Ferndale. The Rev. John Dawson was appointed as the mission priest and he was able, with local support, to raise the funding for the construction of a church and presbytery. Construction began in 1866 and the church was opened on 3 October 1868 by the Right Rev. Bishop Brown of Newport and Menevia. The Presbytery, attached to the W, was also built at this point, set back from the street by a garden court on the side of the church.
Exterior
Presbytery, randomly coursed stone, part sandstone dressings. Slate roof. Replacement windows, all large pane sash style. 2-storey, âTâ-plan. 2-part elevation to the Monk Street garden court: advanced gabled bay to L with full height canted bay window, 3-window gabled range to R with off-centre truncated engaged stack in between the two left-hand windows; , doorway with 4-panelled door toright. . Ground floor windows with cambered heads; shouldered lintels to upper windows.
Interior
Not inspected.
Reason for designation
Included for its special architectural and historic interest as part of a group with the church it adjoins and serves.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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