History

Roman Catholic church in late Gothic style by F A Walters. Foundation stone laid August 1892, opened April 1893. Nave, chancel with E end to the road, and NW thin tower. An intended N aisle, with NW porch, was never built. It was supposed to cost £2000. Tenby was served from Haverfordwest from the 1840s, services in the Bucaneer Inn St Julian's Street, in the basement of Sparta House, Bridge Street, in the 1870s, and then from 1888 in the church of St Bride, Brychan Yard, Upper Frog Street. Father Placid Wareing built the present church, which was consecrated by Cardinal Vaughan in 1893.
Since the late C20 liturgical reforms most of the fittings have been removed. At the opening in 1893 there was a rood beam with cross and figures, a stone high altar on 4 marble columns, gift of the Connaught Rangers, with painted and gilded baldachino on chains and a tabernacle of repousse metal given by Miss James of Pantsaison, Monington, Pembs, all now gone. In a chapel, an alabaster altar given by a visitor in 1893, the chapel walls panelled in Bath and Caen stone with relief carving of the Entombment. Also a Caen stone angel and a Caen stone screen with marble shafts and alabaster panels. The chapel of Our Lady of Good Counsel was redecorated in blue and gold by Mr Wise of Burns & Oates of London, in 1895, with picture of Virgin and Child over the altar. Statues of St Joseph and the Sacred Heart were placed on carved corbels in 1893. Kelly's Directory of 1926 mentions a fine alabaster altar in the S or Holy Cross chapel and stained glass over the Lady altar. Stained glass windows to Stewart and Dover families inserted, over altar, in 1929.

Exterior

Roman Catholic church, grey limestone laid in irregular courses with Bath stone windows and red Broseley tiled roofs. Nave with thin Pembrokeshire-type NW tower, and chancel, N aisle never built. W end has tower to left, step back in wall and coping to right, to suggest a S aisle, coped gable and cross finial. Tall 4-light pointed W window with flowing ogee tracery and hoodmould, over later C20 full width lean-to deep porch with central entry. Sloping buttress to right, mostly covered by porch roof. Tower is thin with plinth, battered sides, coped embattled parapet and lead spirelet. Single pointed small bell-light each side and small loop on W and N at mid height. N side has stub wall for unbuilt N aisle. First bay of N wall is limestone with ogee-pointed N door and hoodmould. Double doors with wrought iron hinges. Another stub wall to left, then rendered temporary wall with 4 2-light wooden windows. NE tall chimney with ashlar gabled cap. Nave S side of 5 bays with 2-light ogee-traceried pointed windows with hoodmoulds, and stepped buttresses between. First bay is blank, second and fourth have full-length windows, third bay has window cut short by low lean-to with 2 tiny windows, and fifth bay has projecting chapel with catslide roof and short 2-light window. Nave E gable is not coped but has shoulders, that to S with tiled coping that to N carrying the chimney. Blank E wall to SE chapel.
Chancel has lower roof but high eaves, single light to S wall. E end has coped shouldered gable, sheer buttresses each side with ashlar gables, and sill course between, under 2 tall narrow single lights with ogee tracery under quatrefoils. In gable is an ogee niche with crocketted finials and statue of St Teilo, 1893. N side has Tudor arch in wall, for an intended opening. Lean-to vestry with monopitch roof against E side of a wall running out from nave NE corner.

Interior

Pointed original W door. Painted plastered walls with 5-bay steep arch-braced scissor-truss roof with thin hammerbeams on corbels. Four bay N arcade immured in wall. Three ashlar octagonal piers with moulded caps and bases, double-chamfered arches and hoodmoulds with 3 ornate leaf-carved corbels. Responds do not have the moulded capitals. W end timber gallery of 3 bays on 2 chamfered posts, with front of narrow vertical panels over brattished beam, reached by stone stairs in tower. Pointed N door, ogee piscina to right. Pointed E vestry door with hoodmould on leaf stops, to left of chancel arch. High pointed moulded pointed chancel arch with hood and carved head stops. Narrow short chancel with panelled segmental pointed roof with sunburst bosses marked IHS. S chapel has segmental-pointed arch and lean-to roof, and S wall has another lower lean-to recess for Lady altar with 2 tiny windows.
Fittings: later C20 replacement altar and reredos. Two statues of St Joseph and Sacred Heart, 1893, formerly at base of chancel arch now on corbels on wall each side. S chapel has shelf and tabernacle remaining of altar and corbel with carved stone angel. Lady altar of alabaster, with marble statue and Gothic panelling. Two stained glass E windows of 1929, Crucifixion and Resurrection; nave S first window, SS Mary Magdalen and Paul; second window, over Lady altar, the Annunciation; two tiny lights by altar; third window SS Peter and John. S chapel has 2-light window of SS David and Teilo. W window has 4 saints on clear glass, SS Stephen, David Lewis, John Lloyd and Philip Evans. Etched glass doors in original W door, Holy Rood and St Teilo.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a substantial late Victorian Gothic church by one of the leading architects working for Roman Catholic patrons.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29485485

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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