87901

 

II  

Interim Protection  

 

 

Catholic Church of Our Lady of Fatima  

 

Gwynedd  

Bala  

Bala  

 

292559  

335960  

N  

On the N side of the High Street just down from the Royal Hotel.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Modern  

The church was established in 1946 in a former stables to the rear of a chip shop. The building, prominently located on the High Street, is understood to date from 1609. There had been a Catholic presence in the town of Bala in the C19 when a visiting Jesuit priest from Ruthin said Mass there. This ended around the 1870s and it wasn’t until 1932 that the town was served with regular visiting priests from Dolgellau, with services held in the Victoria Hall. Around 1935 Fr Eric Green, a parish priest at Dolgellau, purchased a site near Bala Lake and drew up plans for a permanent church. This church was never built. Shortly after, the Sisters of Nazareth set up a Convent at nearby Llanycil and a parish was established in the town. The Convent chaplain served as priest, and the Convent, Victoria Hall and other local houses were used for Mass. The local Catholic population grew and in 1946, the town acquired its first full time parish priest, Fr James Koenen OP a Dutch Dominican,. He raised the £1,800 to acquire the former fish and chip shop on the High Street with house and stables to its rear. Koenen had a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and at his instigation, this new church was dedicated to her. The building is believed to have early origins and was the location of the first Welsh Baptist service in Wales. The work to convert it for use as a church was largely undertaken by Koenen and his parishioners. Advice had been sought on the works from Geoffrey Webb, Professor of Art History at the Slade School of Fine Art. His recommendation to appoint either Sebastian Comper or William Henry Randoll Blacking as architects was not taken up. It opened for worship on 15 June 1948 and is understood to be the first church outside of Portugal to be dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. This was of such significance that the opening was attended by the Portuguese Vice-Consul and the Consuls-General for Panama, Chile and Salvador. A Statue of Our Lady of Fatima was given to the church and blessed by the Bishop of Leiria in Fatima. It arrived via sea at Liverpool and was transported in an open top car via Chester, Wrexham, and Llangollen to Bala where it was carried through the town to the church. Very quickly the church became a place of pilgrimage and a symbolic centre for the Catholic faith in what had traditional been the heart of Protestant Wales. Koenen’s aim was to develop the parish as a centre for Catholicism. On Sunday 4 July 1954 there were 20,000 pilgrims in the town for High Mass with Bishop Petit of Menevia, held on the shores of Lake Bala. This was one of the largest gatherings of the Catholic faith in Wales. The Chapel, largely hidden from the High Street, is still in use and survives as the oldest known Catholic church building in the Wrexham Diocese. In 2000 a confessional in the church was converted into a shrine of Our Lady of Fatima by local builder Ellis Gwyne Jones, incorporating Welsh slate detailing (by Mike Watts) and stained glass depicting the spinning sun of Fatima (by Sr Jen Bronham, a Loreto Sister from S Wales and the artist John Shannon).  

Church and presbytery in a building fronting onto High Street, extending to rear on narrow burgage plot. Presbytery and piety shop in High Street frontage, church in courtyard to the rear, accessed by covered passageway to side. Rendered rubble stone throughout, the render lined out in imitation of ashlar on High Street elevation. Slate roofs. High street frontage of 1½ storeys and 3 bays. Main range set back with advanced gabled presbytery wing to left with 3-part cross window to ground floor, replaced 4-pane sash window to gable and tiled image of Our Lady of Fatima in between. Cross at apex. Lean-to across main range to right houses entrance to presbytery to left, display window of piety shop and entrance to passageway to right. Paired gabled dormers set back in main range behind . In courtyard: rear 2-storey wing to Presbytery of 2 bays, replacement windows and gable stack. Church in lower former stable beyond, single storey and 5 bays, timber bellcote mounted above eaves to left, deeply set lancet windows (the windows themselves replaced in UPVC). and projecting side chapel/shrine. Arched entrance door to right.  

Nave and sanctuary in one, with small side chapel or shrine on left hand (liturgical north) side of nave. Nave of 4 bays, windows in W and N walls and 2 skylights on courtyard side. raised cruck roof trusses, and studding exposed in gable end of sanctuary. Walls lined with concrete slabs with wide joints to the base of the trusses. Oak floor, slate floor in chapel / shrine. Carved oak statue of St Jude at west end. Circular ceramic Stations of the Cross. Octagonal font of carved painted stone at E end of nave. Pine benches said to have been acquired by Fr Koenan from a local Methodist chapel. Side chapel / shrine with slate lined walls, stained glass window, statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Sanctuary raised up one step, oak panelled walls, table altar ( installed after the Second Vatican Council, 1962-5), tabernacle plinth and tabernacle with crucifix above carved by Ferreira Thedun. Presbytery and piety shop not inspected.  

Included, despite later alterations, for its special architectural interest as a rare example of a post-war Catholic church established in a building with early origins and adapted for use, maintaining the traditional form and character of the existing building, particularly internally. It has historic interest for the establishment of the Catholic faith in the town and the wider area and has group value with surrounding buildings in the Bala Conservation Area. 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.