History

Anglican parish church of 1878-80 by H.F. Clarke of Briton Ferry built for the local industrialist family of Jenkins for £4,500. The tower was not added until 1914-15 to designs by Glendinning Moxham of Swansea, for about £3,000. The church is of unusual scale and is the major work of the architect. At W end of nave an inserted hall with flat suspended ceiling, c 1995.

Exterior

Anglican parish church, rock-faced Pennant stone with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs. Five-bay nave with porch in second bay and 2-light windows with foiled circles in pointed heads. Porch doors and W door have rounded jambs with mouldings dying in. W door with ashlar gable over, big 3-light window and two buttresses. N side has 7 bay aisle. Clerestorey windows, ten each side in pairs of varied trefoils, quatrefoils and sexfoils. Big E window of five lights with two trefoils and one sexfoil to traceried head. Chancel S tower has four stages with string courses, stair tower in NE angle capped with ashlar half-octagon spire against second stage. Clasping buttresses gable-capped above third stage. Ashlar top stage with corbels under battlements, centre battlement slightly stepped up.

Interior

Tall interior with some elaborate naturalistic stone carving in Ruskinian mode. Plastered walls, painted ashlar 5-bay arcades with double-chamfer pointed arches and hoodmoulds carried on heavy squat columns raised on high bases and with very large leaf-carved capitals, of varied plants accurately represented. Clerestorey paired lights and high arch-braced scissor-trusses to nave roof. Lean-to aisle roofs with arch braces from wall-posts on corbels.
Pointed E arches to aisles. Massive chancel arch with corbelled columns, leaf capitals with armorial shields. Keeled moulding to arch and hoodmould. Three steps to chancel with low Gothic timber rails on L-plan stone coping each side. Panelled diagonally boarded chancel roof with transverse ribs on corbels. One step before step with vestry door on N, step with altar rail with cast-iron branched uprights (as in St Thomas Church, St Thomas), apparently C19 but dated to 1931. Tiled sanctuary floor and panelled E wall with panelling of 1930 and painting on zinc of Ascension apparently of 1930, Gothic C19 style. Pointed arch each side, S one blind with screen below.
Fittings. Brass eagle lectern. Oak traceried panelled pulpit of c1930 on C19 base with trilobe shaft, stalls of c1930. Big organ with painted pipes by Leonard Stanley, Glos.
Memorials: At W end large 1889 charities plaque on marble, good Baroque cartouche plaque to Justina Popkin of Forest (d 1749); plaque to David Jenkins builder (d 1818) and Rev J. Davies, dissenting minister (d 1821) and other Davieses to 1837; neo-Grec plaque to William Jones of Glanbraine (d 1799) and descendants to 1860.
Stained glass mostly C20 N aisle 4th Heavenly Power of Love 1986 by Tim Lewis; N aisle fifth dated 1934 in old-fashioned c1900 style by G. Maile, Angel at Tomb. S aisle third, The Creation in 6 roundels 1999 by Colwyn Morris of Glantawe Studios; S aisle fourth, abstract glass in clear glass (light of the world) with brown (industrial waste),100 clear bubbles (100 years of the church) 3 red bubbles (3 donors), 1980 by Tim Lewis; S aisle fifth, symbols of New and Old Testaments, 1990 by Colwyn Morris. E window of patterned quarries with small symbols of Evangelists and others. Good W window of 1920s with S David/ Lamb of God / S Samlet over 3 small scenes, Christ figure in big sexfoil over.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a substantial industrialist's church with definite quality and character, the major work of an otherwise little-known local architect.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29505091

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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