St Mary – Monmouth

Introduction

St Mary – Monmouth in Monmouth is one of the earliest Catholic churches built in Britain after the Catholic Relief Act of 1778, and the oldest church in the Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff. The church was originally built in 1792-3, extended in 1838 and 1870-1.

History

Before the church was built, mass was said in an upper room of The Robin Hood Inn, and the landlord Michael Watkins was one of the petitioners for a public chapel. Permission was granted by local magistrates on conditions that the building should not have a tower or spire and should not be prominent in public views. The church was extended in 1838 by the Rev. Thomas Burgess, later the second Bishop of Clifton, adding 2 bays at the east end forming a sacristy with burial vault, and a staircase to an upper room and galleries.

A confessional donated by the Royal Monmouthshire Militia was added in 1875, and they also donated a brass sanctuary lamp in 1885. The baptistry was retiled in 1888, and the present font was probably installed at the same time. The sanctuary was enriched in the 1890s, including embellishment of the reredos by G Willis Pryce, which has been lost. Major renovations were carried out in 1923 at a cost of £2,000.

In 1953 a painting of The Presentation in the Temple by EG Gainsford (1854) above the high altar was replaced by a crucifix. In 1957 a stone altar replaced an earlier wooden altar and reredos. Redecorations were carried out in 1961 with a new timber floor replacing raised pew platforms and tiled alleys. In the late 1960s a new forward altar was installed in the sanctuary, which was carpeted and the tabernacle moved to an alcove.

A school was also constructed to the rear but this does not survive. A church record in the Account Book of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Abbot records the payment on 6th June 1871 of £14.7s.6d to Mr. Vowles, Organ Builder, Bristol.

Architecture and furnishings

The church retains several relics of St John Kemble and is a place of pilgrimage. The church contains relics of St John Kemble of Welsh Newton, executed at Hereford in 1679 and canonised in 1970, including a C16 oak table altar used by Kemble at Pembridge Castle. The church has an unusual font in the baptistery with a serpent in alabaster, probably of 1888. The church has a Lady altar in the gallery over the sanctuary with a C17 oak chest and C19 Gothic reredos.

The street elevation is of coursed red sandstone rubble with Bath stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs, in a plain Gothic style of North Italian influence. The three-bay front has a central entrance set forward in the base of the tower, with double plank doors recessed within a pointed Venetian Gothic arch with attached half-columns with stiff-leaf capitals. The tower has an open bell stage with paired openings with central colonette of Lombardic type facing in each direction, two bells, a dentil cornice and a bell-cast rectangular spire.

The side elevations are rendered and show the two builds with two windows of 1871 at the street end, three of 1793 to the centre, and a further part of 1838 to the rear of 2 bays. The Bucknall (1871) windows are 2-light with cinquefoil heads, the earlier ones are pointed headed sashes, and the 1838 windows are pointed sashes with intersecting tracery. The east (liturgical) elevation is pebble-dashed with 2 windows, a stepped gable and a gablet cross. The interior is very plain with a corniced ceiling and a triple sanctuary arch, with a small apse flanked by doors.

The galleries are presumably from the 1838 work, with a staircase to rear with square balusters, turned newels and swept handrail from the same period. The organ is situated in the choir loft at the western end of the church.

Parish life

The parish collects groceries weekly for the disadvantaged, with marked boxes at the back of the church. Tea and coffee are served after Sunday Mass in both churches.