St. Mary’s Church, Carmarthen was solemnly opened for Divine Service one hundred and fifty years ago by Bishop Brown. The anniversary of this event was celebrated in a variety of ways within the parish. One aspect of the celebration was the preparation of an exhibition of photographs and text which aimed to illustrate the history of the parish since 1852.
Many parishioners asked that a booklet be prepared based on the exhibition panels, and this publication is the result. The exhibition and subsequently this booklet could not have been produced without the help of Jonathan Lewis, Martin Walters, and Fr. George Skelton S.M. and especially of those people who took the time and trouble to provide photographs. These include:-
Michael Cronin, K.S.G.
Mary Dark
Sr. Anne Marie Davies, Archivist,
Daughters of the Holy Ghost
Dawn Davies
Gerald Davies
Ken Davies
Maureen Evans
Roger Evans
Sr. Lily Kelly, S.M.
Arthur Meredith, ‘Menevia News’
Margaret Murphy, D.C.S.S.
Fr. Nicholas Postlethwaite, Provincial, Congregation of the Passion
Martin O’Toole
Fr. Ross Patterson
Patricia Quiruga
Christine Randall
Jock Shields
Sylvia Stephens
Teresa Thomas
Grismond Wilkins
PRIESTS
1850 – 1851 Rev. Peter Lewis
1851 – 1864 Rev. Lewis Havard
1864 – 1872 Jnr. Rev. William
1872 – 1889 E Williams Rev. Thomas Carolan
SUPERIORS
1889 – 1890 Dominic O’Neill
1890 – 1893 Placid Wareing C.P .
1893 – 1899 Polycarp Clifford C.P.
1899 – 1900 Basil Moubert C.P.
1900 – 1902 Martyn Byrne C.P .
1902 – 1904 Fabian Madden C.P.
1904 – 1905 Egwin Wilkes C.P.
1905 – 1906 C.P. Placid Wareing C.P.
1906 – 1910 Wilfred O’Hagan C.P .
SUPERIORS AND RECTORS
1910 – 1914 Bernard Mangam C.P
1914 – 1916 Kevin McKeown C.P.
1916 – 1917 Antoninus Hull C.P .
1917 – 1920 Urban Young C.P.
1920 – 1926 Cyprian Meagher C.P
1926 – 1929 John McMullan C.P .
1929 – 1932 Kevin McKeown C.P.
1932 – 1933 Joseph Smith C.P .
1933 – 1938 Germain Conway C.P.
1938 – 1944 Ronan Nohilly C.P.
1944 – 1946 Arthur Amor C.P.
1946 – 1947 Canisius Reilly C.P.
1947 – 1950 Matthew Crilly C.P .
1950 – 1956 Vincent Gaffey C.P .
1956 – 1959 Hilary Culhane C.P .
1959 – 1962 Flavian Morgan C.P.
1962 – 1965 Bertrand Mahon C.P.
1965 – 1968 Anselm Pultanevitch C.P .
1968 – 1971 Malcolm Reid C.P.
1971 – 1975 Francis McCaffrey C.P.
1975 – 1986 James Eamer C.P.
PARISH PRIESTS
1986 – 1988 Sylvester O’Donnell
1988 – 1992 Bonaventure Welsford
1992 – 2000 Nicholas Jenkins
2000 – George Skelton S.M.
The persecution of the Catholic Faith following the Reformation was to virtually wipe out Catholicism in Carmarthenshire. By the time of the relief Measures of 1791-2 there were only a handful of adherents and the heart had gone out of the old faith. Even by 1845 there were no chapels, mission houses, school houses nor missioners in the county. The Faith was revived again with the advent of a wave of Irish Catholic immigrants in the nineteenth century driven out of their country by the Potato famine. In 1848 in particular there was an influx of Irish immigrants into Carmarthen.
Many were merely passing through the town but some settled in an area between Spilman Street and the river, known as Dan-y-banc and Kidwelly fach.
The area was described as a ‘little Irish colony’. A proportion of the railway ‘navvies’ working on the South Wales Railway from Swansea to Haverfordwest were also Irish, as were many of the soldiers at the Barracks in Carmarthen.
Partly to cater for the Irish, Fr. Peter Lewis was appointed missioner apostolic. He was born in Brecon in 1815. His father was William Lewis (Wil Nantyglo), who possibly originated from Carmarthen. The Rev. Peter Lewis came to Car- marthen in 1850, and lived in Lammas Street. He rented a store room in a house at the junction of St. Catherine Street and Water Street, and converted it into a meeting room. Whilst his congregation would have included a number of Irish immigrants, the bulk of the congregation comprised some 120 privates of the 77th Regiment of Foot who were stationed in Carmarthen at the time.
Fr. Lewis was instrumental in building St Mary’s church. The land cost £600 and was paid for by Mr Herbert of Clytha. The architect of the proposed church was Charles Hansom of Clifton, Bristol and Daniel Santry of Carmarthen was hired to build the structure. The cost of new Catholic church at Carmarthen would be borne primarily by Miss Catherine Richardson, who lived at Glanbrydan House near Manordeilo. She died aged 75 at a convent in Birmingham, and is buried in St Mary’s graveyard.
Work on the church started in 1851 and after a number of set backs, particularly the de- lays resulting from a severe storm when the wooden part of the roof was blown down and ‘utterly demolished’, the church was completed in August 1852.
The new Catholic church was solemnly opened for Divine Service on Wednesday, August 4th 1852. The Carmarthen Journal described the church as :
‘very neatly built in the Gothic style, and is tolerably commodious. The nave is 74ft. by 26 ft. 6 in., and the chancel is 22 ft. by 20ft. The walls inside the building are not decorated. The altar is constructed in Caen marble, carved by the architect, Mr Hansom, Clifton, and measures 7ft. by 4ft and 3 ft high. It is surmounted by a tabernacle, in which the sacrament is preserved. To the back of this is the reredos with hangings on each side. We have heard that the building has been erected at the expense of a lady.’
The cost of the nave was £800, that of the Chancel was £135, the architect’s commission came to £46.15.0, whilst travelling expenses and other
charges increased the cost to £1,072-50. The cost of church and house together came to £1,500.
Mrs Arengo Cross of Abermarlais provided a significant proportion of the annual running costs of the Car- marthen Mission.
The Rev. Lewis was transferred to the Brecon mission in October 1851, to be replaced by the Rev. Lewis Havard Jnr. He was born on the 27th of July, 1807, and was one of the Havard family of Senny (popularly termed ‘the Roman Dingle’), near Brecknock.
In 1853 there were about 200 Catholics in the area served by the Carmarthen Mission. At Carmarthen besides soldiers, they amounted to some 50 or 60, at Abermarlais between 40 and 60, with 70 in Aberystwyth and its neighbourhood and a further 20 in the Cardigan area.
The Baptismal Registers for St Mary’s record some 626 baptisms up until the arrival of the Passionists in 1889. Almost all relate to the baptism of babies and young children. Clearly, there were no large numbers of conversions in the wake of the new mission. However, the secular priests were responsible for some notable converts partly as a result of the Oxford Movement and the associated religious revival. These included Charles Smith Morris of an old Carmarthenshire banking family, and his aunt Alice Abadam whose family came from Middleton Hall.
By 1864 the number of Catholics in Carmarthen and its several widely separated stations was about
340. In that year Lewis Havard
Jnr. returned to Brecon and was replaced in Carmarthen by Fr William Williams. Welsh speaking Fr. Williams, was born in Anglesey in 1830 and originally destined for the Anglican ministry. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1850 and ordained at Valladolid in 1862. Fr Williams, served for some nine years at Carmarthen, before being appointed by Bishop Brown in 1872 to replace Fr Carolan at Aberystwyth.
Fr Thomas Carolan moved to Carmarthen. He was born in Londonderry in 1832 and was ordained in 1859. He was ordained for Buenos Aires, and served there before returning to Wales in 1868. Fr Carolan served the Carmarthen Mission from 1872 until the Passionists took over the Mission in 1889. He retired to Derry.
In the spring of 1888 a Miss Lascelles applied to the Very Rev Fr Vincent, Provincial of the Passionists to send a priest to Tenby. He agreed subject to permission being given by the Bishop. This Bishop Hedley gladly gave. Fr Dominic O’Neill fit- ted out a chapel at Sparta House with Mass said for the first time at Whitsuntide 1888.
In May 1889 Fr Dominic was appointed Superior of St Mary’s Carmarthen and Fr Daniel took over charge of Tenby. The Provincial Chapter of July 1890 decided that the community should be formed at Carmarthen and that the spiritual needs of Tenby should be served from that house. Fr Placid and Brother Anselm remained in residence at Tenby until November 1890. The Father supplying Tenby went there on Fridays in time for evening devotions and returned to St Mary’s on Monday or Tuesday mid-day.
For four weeks after Fr Carolan departed, the parochial duties were fulfilled by a secular priest the Rev. Fr. Matthews. Fr O’Neill came to Carmarthen in May 1889. He was then joined by Fr David.
On his arrival in 1889 Fr Dominic found the church in great need of repair and decoration and immediately set to work renovating it.
In 1889 a new wooden ceiling , organ gallery and organ were erected and the services of Brother Mark used for decoration of the sanctuary and church. This work started in August. The community was assisted by Mr Charles Morris, Miss Abadam and Miss Catherine Richardson who gave the new carpet.
In 1894 The Universe described St Mary’s as ‘the dear little church upon the hill’ which rears its spirelet above those of the Anglican and Protestant persuasion – a perfectly natural situation for a building that is devoted to the worship of adherents of the one true church. St Mary’s is the attraction of Carmarthen, and lovers of the sanctuary rarely pass through without visiting and ad- miring its artistic interior.’
The interior of church was described in 1895 as:
‘Marble-topped chastely designed and exquisitely carved communion rails, with their heavy brass mounted folding gates, there was visible a costly carpet that had been laid down by a generous benefactress shortly before her death.’
There was evidence on all hands of the great amount of money that had been expended to make the Temple of God as beautiful as possible. The roofs and walls in the Interior of the building were literally covered with paintings and frescoes from the brush of a skilled brother of St Paul of the Cross. There was a lifesize statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, which is fixed on a stone pedestal on the Gospel side in the body of the church; and in close proximity to a lovely statue of the Sacred Heart, which is also similarly constructed just opposite’
A bequest of £50 from Miss Richardson was spent on replacing the wooden communion rails.
March 12th 1909 saw the erection of an altar with a statue of Our Blessed Lady. The altar was designed by Fr George, and made by Messrs Regali and Co. Liverpool; with adornment by Brother Thomas. The statue, oak reredos and its panels were donated by Mr Regan, whilst the pair of rich curtains were the gifts of Miss Schomberg and Miss E Morris. The polished walnut rails, picked in gold, were bought from a legacy left by Mrs. Ettridge, a poor but devout Catholic. The railings were supplied by Mr Jones buildin contractor Union Street, and the final touches in the way of guilding, etc., were given by Mr Jones, St Catherine Street, decorator.
High Altar: The Rt Rev Francis Mostyn Bishop of Menevia arrived June 1912 for the consecration of the High Altar, the gift of an anonymous donor. The Altar was made and erected by Messrs Wall of Cheltenham. It had been presented by Mrs Mary McNally (nee Comey), though this was not to be made known until after her death in May 1929.
When the new church at Llanelly was opened in 1938, Fr Moran donated the Stations of the Cross from the old church in Lloyd Street, Llanelly to Carmarthen. ‘They are in plaster relief and add much to the dignity of St Mary’s and are, undoubtedly a great improvement on the old ones’.
Following the death of Ma Mère in April 1952, a committee was formed. It raised £532 10s 4d, and a new Lady Altar and a stained glass window were installed in the church in her memory.
In 1966 major repair work was needed on the church and financial help was sought from the Province. An appeal was made in Highgate church by Bishop Petit. The lead at the gable ends of the church had to be renewed. The eastwall of the sanctuary and nave had to be replastered and with the complete redecoration of the interior the work cost about £3,000.
The altar rails were removed and the Sanctuary extended about three feet into the nave of the church. The Sanctuary was completely recarpeted and a temporary wooden altar placed at the entrance to the sanctuary to enable Mass to be said facing the people. The flagstones which formed the floor of the aisle were removed and replaced by a wood-block flooring. The wooden floor on either side of the aisle was sanded and sealed and polished and the ‘rather hideous rail round the Lady Altar irreverently known as the ‘hitching rail’ was taken away, and short benches placed before the Lady Altar. This removed the ‘break’ in the middle of the nave and will perhaps in time remove the psychological barrier which prevented people from coming to the front of the church. The congregation has always tended to crowd into the benches at the back, a relic possibly of the days when only the ‘quality’ occupied the front seats .
Starting in 1986 major building work was undertaken on the Retreat and the church.
Spire: In 1916, during a storm a tree in the graveyard was uprooted and its branches caught the steeple and it hurled it to fragments. A concert raised £30 towards the cost of its repair. It was promoted by the 2nd Garrison Battalion Kings Own Liverpool Regiment which had been quartered in the town since November 1915. There were over 300 Catholics amongst them and the Rector was their chaplain. However, it was not until 1937 that repairs to the church tower were completed.
A new cross was erected on Saturday June 12th 1937 on the roof of the church to replace the one broken off many years earlier.
In May 1954 the church steeple was struck by lightning and partly demolished. Falling masonry destroyed part of the church roof but little or no damage was caused to the interior of the church.
During the following week the remaining part of the steeple was taken down and temporary repairs were made to the church roof. The windows at the front of the monastery were shattered during the storm, and all electrical fittings were destroyed.
The Bell: Near the steps of the church is a bell emblazoned with the Passionist Sign. The bell was once used to call the faithful to Mass and Benediction on Sundays and to sound the evening Angelus each day. It was installed on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee in the priesthood of Fr Peter Paul Smyth on 18th April 1895. The inscription in Latin means ‘I call the Faithful to give glory to God; I sound the praises of Mary Mother of God and of Peter the Apostle; I call to mind the sacerdotal Silver Jubilee of Fr. Peter Paul’.
Holy Water Stoup: Adjacent to the steps can be seen a Holy Water Stoup. The shaft wrongly indicates that it comes from St Barbara’s chapel, said to have been located at the junction of Monument Hill and Jobs Well Road. However, close examination shows that the shaft has been carved to remove an earlier reference to another chapel – Prince Edward’s chapel, which may have stood in the castle.
The ‘stoup’ was donated to St. Mary’s in 1892, by Edward Spurrell, of King Street. It had ‘for many a period lay hid in the dust of ages’ at his residence. There is a possibility that the stoup is in fact a Roman artefact.
