87918

 

II  

Interim Protection  

 

 

Catholic Church of St David  

 

Flintshire  

Mold  

Mold  

 

324154  

364206  

E  

Off St Davids Lane, by the roundabout on the A541 on the junction with New Street.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Modern  

Catholic church built 1965-6 and designed by the accomplished practice Weightman and Bullen. Constructed at a cost of £45,000. Through the early-mid C19 Mass in Mold was said in a house in New Street and a Lodging house in Milford Street. The mission was originally served by Capuchin friars from Chester and then the friars from Pantasaph. In 1862 a small church was built at Fford Fain, and then later a presbytery and a school were built alongside. In the 1930s a large site adjacent to the church was acquired and developed with new buildings to serve the Catholic community in the town. A new presbytery was built in 1955-56, designed by Frederick Roberts of Mold who also designed the larger school that was built in the early 1960s. A convent was later provided for the sisters of the Sainte Union Congregation who were assigned to teach in the school. Finally, the new church was built 1965-6. It was designed by the practice Weightman and Bullen who developed a modern approach to church design at the time of the Second Vatican Council and were responsible for a number of commissions, especially across NW England. The practice also designed the slightly later St David in Tywyn (1969). Originally it was intended to have an enclosed courtyard to the front of the church, but this was not included in the final design. Various minor changes have also been made, including replacement of the W doors, installation of some uPVC windows, conversion of the baptistry into a repository, removal of the metal altar rails, and movement of the altar backwards (to allow for extra seating), at the same time creating a chapel of the Holy Sacrament in the space off the south aisle that had originally been a confessional box. Side chapels to either side of the west end of the nave have also been adapted for other uses. In 2022, 12 dalle de verre stained glass windows by Jonah Jones were installed in the church following their removal from The Resurrection of Our Holy Saviour, Morfa Nefyn. They had been created for that church in 1967-8. The church was built as part of the wider scheme that included a presbytery, parish hall, school and convent. Only the church is included in this listing.  

Design based on traditional longitudinal plan of aisled nave, transepts and sanctuary, the elements radically re-imagined in a modern idiom and expressed in modern materials. Rustic orange Leicestershire brick facing to a steel reinforced masonry pier construction. Steel and timber copper-clad roofs. Large, rectangular plan, comprising nave with aisles that are slightly advanced at east and west ends, where they clasp the lean-to canopy roof over the entrance, and a lean-to passage at E. Shallow transept-like projections to N and S, with band of low narrow windows to N, an irregular grid of taller lights to S. N and S nave walls articulated by single-storey lean-to extensions with copper-clad roofs, separated by tall windows. Campanile advanced at SW corner with single bronze bell and giant aluminium cross (originally fibreglass). Recessed W front has lean-to copper-clad canopy over entrance, and tall windows stretching from this roof to the eaves, in the angles with the advanced aisles. Additional entrance in W end of N aisle.  

Rustic orange Leicestershire bricks, as externally. Broad and lofty nave, the aisles threaded through the brick-clad piers that support the roof. These piers define alternating wide and narrow bays – the narrow bays with high windows, the wider bays opening into shallow arched recesses. Two of these originally housed confessional boxes, but that to S is now the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Gallery at west end, accessed by spiral staircase in NW corner. Former baptistry at SW, now a repository. Sanctuary dramatically top-lit from glazed lantern, flanked by transept-like chapels dedicated to Our Lady and the other to St David, each with abstract stained glass dalle de verre windows by Charles Norris, a monk from Buckfast Abbey. Shallow arches in the E walls of these transepts open into narrow bays with tall windows providing concealed side-lighting to sanctuary. Behind these, a sacristy and flower room are linked by a passage running behind the sanctuary. The 12 windows by Jonah Jones are distributed throughout the church in two sets: 8 are mounted in frames in front of existing windows to either side of nave and at west end, and 4 are mounted in lightboxes on internal walls to E and W. They are mainly abstract compositions with strong primary colours, though the pair to either side of the sanctuary incorporate star and flower emblems.  

Included for its special architectural and historic interest as a fine church by one of the leading architectural practices of the period for Catholic church buildings. The design interprets traditional planning in a modern idiom to create a striking and accomplished building. The 12 windows by Jonah Jones, together with the original windows by Charles Norris, represent an important collection of work by two major C20 artists working in dalle de verre. This structure has been afforded Interim Protection under the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. It is an offence to damage this structure and you may be prosecuted. To find out more about Interim Protection, please visit the statutory notices page on the Cadw website. For further information about this structure, or to report any damage please contact Cadw.