87924

 

II  

Interim Protection  

 

 

Catholic Church of St Tudwal and attached Presbytery  

 

Gwynedd  

Barmouth  

Barmouth  

 

261170  

316175  

E  

On the N side of the town, to the E side of King Edward's Street (A496).  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Edwardian  

Catholic church constructed 1904-5 to designs of Alfred Gilbertson of Liverpool in a late Gothic Revival style with Arts and Crafts influences. The adjoining Presbytery was constructed with the church and also to designs by Gilbertson. Barmouth was a small harbour town when it developed as a holiday resort in the late C19. Provision for Catholic worship was at this time very limited, and the first priest, the Rev Robert Maurice was appointed in 1878 but left shortly after. Fr McMahon followed and used his own rented house in Aberamffra Terrace as a chapel, but attempts to establish a permanent church were not successful: the Catholic population of the town was small and fluctuating The Jesuits of St Beuno’s College spent their summer holidays in the area and helped when needed into the 1880s. In 1884 the Bishop of Shrewsbury, whose Diocese at that time covered the old county of Merioneth, appointed the Rev Thomas Donovan to the Barmouth mission. Donovan started raising funds for a permanent church and on 7 August 1891 a tin chapel on Park Road was opened as a temporary solution. It was dedicated to St Tudwal, a C6 saint who had briefly settled locally. Fund raising continued under Donovan, and his successors, Rev W A Baggaley and then Rev C B Wilcock. Wilcock was able to buy the site for the current St Tudwal on land to the N of the town centre. The vendor, Mr Williams, then donated £25 to the construction of the new church. Alfred Gilbertson was appointed to design the new church and the foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1904 by Bishop Francis Mostyn of Menevia. Messrs Lloyd, Williams & Jones of Barmouth were employed as masons, Messrs Thomas & Parry of Llanbedr the joiners and Mr John Roberts the painter. It opened in 1905 at a cost of £5041 and was the first post-Reformation Catholic church in Merioneth. Furnishings including the high altar and Stations of the Cross were installed after opening, and the tin chapel was sold in 1906. The only known internal alterations are the adaptation of the high altar following the Second Vatican Council and the removal of the open arcade altar rails (these kept on site).  

Church in Early English Gothic Revival style. Randomly coursed Minffordd granite with yellow Cefn sandstone dressings. Slate roof. Crosses to each gable. Windows a mix of paired and single lancets, squared and with curvilinear tracery. SW tower with angle buttresses, paired louvred lancet bell-openings, saddleback roof and canopied octagonal niche at the top with a statue of Our Lady. Entrance at base of tower. Sanctuary lit by gabled pseudo-transepts. Presbytery to right, 3-storey 2 -bay with gabled front, cross windows and oriel in left hand bay. Presbytery windows have been replaced in uPVC in original openings.  

Porch leads to narthex with gated baptistry in centre of west wall and pitch-pine glazed screen to nave. Gallery above with organ and access to belfry. Timber hammer beam roof with cruciform king post and collar trusses framed by angle struts; other sections with traceried decoration. Confessional and sacristy to north side with access through sacristy into presbytery. The church retains a fine collection of oak furnishings by Ferdinand Stuflesser of Austria. Altar with front panel relief of the Last Supper is now detached from the reredos, with tall openwork spire over Benediction alcove and tabernacle, side reliefs of the Nativity and the Ascension and shorter side spires. Wainscoting with blind tracery and crenelations throughout the interior with similar detail on pew ends and frontals. In the sanctuary canopied plinths carry painted statues of St Thérèse of Lisieux, St Peter, St Joseph, and a guardian angel. Statues of the Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate on plinths with pinnacled canopies to either side of the sanctuary. Stations of the Cross: polychrome low-relief panels in ornate gothic frames. Presbytery interior largely modernised though retaining original layout.  

Included for its special architectural interest as a large and relatively intact late Gothic Revival church from the early C20 retaining a good set of fittings and furnishings and complete with the attached integral Presbytery. An important building on the N side of the town and with high townscape value. 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.