History in Structure

Parish Church of St David

A Grade II* Listed Building in Neath, Neath Port Talbot

More Photos »
Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.6625 / 51°39'44"N

Longitude: -3.8027 / 3°48'9"W

OS Eastings: 275409

OS Northings: 197504

OS Grid: SS754975

Mapcode National: GBR H3.6D5Z

Mapcode Global: VH5GN.1GHX

Plus Code: 9C3RM56W+XW

Entry Name: Parish Church of St David

Listing Date: 5 January 1989

Last Amended: 5 January 1989

Grade: II*

Source: Cadw

Source ID: 11818

Building Class: Religious, Ritual and Funerary

Also known as: St David's Church, Neath
Parish Church Of St.david,orchard Street

ID on this website: 300011818

Location: Prominently situated near Victoria Gardens Park by the junction of St David’s Street with Orchard Street.

County: Neath Port Talbot

Community: Neath (Castell-nedd)

Community: Neath

Built-Up Area: Neath

Traditional County: Glamorgan

Tagged with: Church building

Find accommodation in
Neath

History

1864-1866 by John Norton of London costing £6,400 on land donated by Howell Gwyn. French C13 Gothic style. Tall 5 bay nave with low aisles. N and S transepts; apsidal chancel and SE angle tower. Snecked bull nosed masonry, red sandstone bands, freestone dressings. Steep gabled slate roofs, over-sailing eaves, gable parapets, ironwork cross finials.

Exterior

Tall 4 light pointed W window, geometric tracery, hoodmould. Stepped buttresses incorporated into lean-to W porch with open cusped arcade. Cusped single light aisle windows, miniature arcade to parapet. Stepped buttresses, pinnacles; plinth. Gabled S porch, double pointed arch doorway, compound shafts. Mouchete bearing St David figure to foliate carved tympanum. Clasping buttresses, 2 light windows to sides. Pointed inner door. Tall clerestorey with 2 light plate tracery windows.

Gabled transepts, 3 light plate window, pierced disc sill band, stepped angle buttresses. Two one light windows to sides. Lean-to E vestry to N transept. Five stage, rectangular "Rhenish" tower. Irregular stressed quoins. Ashlar top storey on corbels; tripartite windows to central turret with corner bartizans linked by gabled clock faces. Pinnacled roofs, ironwork weathervanes. Banded pointed arches to plate traceried louvres of bellstage. Impost and sill bands. Three slit-like windows to second storey, tablet with lettering "VAUGHAN TOWER". Narrow lancet to first storey, banded relieving arch, ramped clasping buttress. Pointed S door.

Apsidal chancel, 9, 2 light plate tracery windows, trefoil sill band.

Interior

xuberant red brick interior with broad decorative bands of blue brick diaper work and freestone dressings. Alternating round and composite arcade piers with foliate capitals rise to pointed banded arches, continuous hoodmoulds. String course and impost band with nookshafts to clerestorey. Similar to W window. Arch braced roof, iron tension bars. Alternating trusses cusped with truncated colonettes on corbels. Tall banded arches on truncated double colonettes with corbels to transepts. Similar detail to chancel arch. Rear arches on colonettes to apse windows, deep cusping to roof. Pointed organ recess to N wall below stone medallion with Christian emblems.

Contemporary fittings including stone pulpit with marble colonettes, table font, pews and chair stalls. Glass by Clayton, Bell and Company to apse.

Reasons for Listing

Grade II* for exuberant interior with fittings, and for dominant tower.

External Links

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.

Recommended Books

Other nearby listed buildings

BritishListedBuildings.co.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact BritishListedBuildings.co.uk for any queries related to any individual listed building, planning permission related to listed buildings or the listing process itself.

British Listed Buildings is a Good Stuff website.