Church of St Tudwal, Barmouth

Introduction

The Church of St Tudwal in Barmouth, in the Diocese of Wrexham, was built in 1904-5 to designs by Alfred Gilbertson of Liverpool in a late Gothic Revival style with Arts and Crafts influences.

History

On 7 August 1891 a tin chapel on Park Road was opened as a temporary solution, dedicated to Saint Tudwal. The foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1904 by Bishop Francis Mostyn of Menevia. The church opened in 1905 at a cost of £5041 and was the first post-Reformation Catholic church in Merioneth. 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. The Jesuits of St Beuno's College spent their summer holidays in the area and helped when needed into the 1880s.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is in Early English Gothic Revival style with randomly coursed Minffordd granite and yellow Cefn sandstone dressings. The interior has a timber hammer beam roof with cruciform king post and collar trusses framed by angle struts. The church retains a fine collection of oak furnishings by Ferdinand Stuflesser of Austria. In the sanctuary canopied plinths carry painted statues of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint Peter, Saint Joseph, and a guardian angel.

The Stations of the Cross are polychrome low-relief panels in ornate gothic frames. The church is covered by a slate roof with crosses on each gable. Gabled pseudo-transepts light the sanctuary. The porch opens into a narthex that has a gated baptistry in the centre of the west wall and a pitch-pine glazed screen to the nave.

The confessional and sacristy lie on the north side, with the sacristy providing access into the presbytery. Wainscoting with blind tracery and crenelations runs throughout the interior, with similar detail on pew ends and frontals. Statues of the Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate stand on plinths with pinnacled canopies to either side of the sanctuary. Messrs Lloyd, Williams & Jones of Barmouth served as masons, Messrs Thomas & Parry of Llanbedr as joiners, and Mr John Roberts as painter.