The Sacred Heart and St Felix – Blaenavon

Introduction

In 1868 German and Italian Franciscan monks established Sacred Heart & Saint Felix in Ellick Street, Blaenavon, constructed as a dual purpose church and school.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is a simple Gothic building with a pitched slate roof and gable entry, built of rock-faced granite with sandstone ashlar dressing, and it has an adjoining presbytery. The nave has three bays with triple lancet windows on the south side; the sanctuary at the east end, the transepts, and the sacristy in the south transept are under lower ridge lines, while the north transept forms part of the adjoining presbytery. At the east end is a large window with simple Gothic tracery, the entrance is arched, and above the entrance is a niche holding a painted stone statue of the Sacred Heart.

The painted plaster relief Stations of the Cross are set in oak Gothic frames, and the first Station is signed 'Maurice Vanpoulle'. Twentieth-century additions include Stations of the Cross erected in memory of John Higgins and stained glass windows in memory of former Parish Priest Rev. Richard Jennings, who died in 1942. Following the Second Vatican Council, a new hardwood forward altar was installed. The church's Benediction Monstrance was dedicated to the memory of Leopold Winterhalter following his death in 1921.

The clergy processed out of the church to the Recessional Hymn 'Christ be our Light'. The church is located at Ellick Street, Blaenavon, NP4 9HR.