History

Built 1888-89 by F R Kempson and J B Fowler, Llandaff diocesan architects. Commissioned by Griffith Llewellyn of Baglan, who with William Cubitt the engineer established the Rhondda Engine Works which became a principal supplier of colliery equipment in S Wales. Completed after his death at the expense of his wife Madelina Georgina Llewellyn, cost £20,000. Builders were Thomas Collins of Tewkesbury. Consecrated 28/7/1890. Known as the Cathedral of the Rhondda.

Exterior

Plan of 5 bay aisled nave with 4 stage W tower and S porch; chancel with organ loft and vestry to N and minstrels gallery and Lady Chapel to S. In Early English style. Built of coursed rock-faced masonry with pink and buff Pennant sandstone dressings used to create a simple polychromy, in particular to the windows, doorways and polygonal stair vices; Welsh slate roof with ridge tiles and crucifix gable finials; bellcote over W end of chancel. Especially tall belltower with crenellated parapet and stair turret to NE corner; top storey has louvred 3-light belfry openings with quatrefoils at base; clock faces below; paired lancets at nave roof level; ground floor has single lancets with hoodmoulds and stops to N and double to W with 2 orders of nook shafts. Large S porch approached by stone steps with flying buttresses to W over side steps and deeply moulded 4 order pointed outer entrance arch with nook shafts and foliage capitals and stops; iron gates and figure in gable niche; side lancets, nail headed moulding to inner arch and arched braced roof. Nave has paired lancets to clerestory and 3 separate lancets with impost and sill bands to each aisle bay which are separated by buttresses with offsets, with angle buttresses with gables and offsets to NW aisle; quatrefoil ventilation panels above plinth. Organ loft to N over vestry and minstrels gallery to S over Lady Chapel form transeptal projections; both have polygonal ashlar stair turrets with tall broaches to base; N side has heavily cusped trefoil headed window to clerestory and S side has trefoil oculus over paired lancets in clerestory; both have 3 lancets at ground floor level. Pointed arched N door. Chancel has bellcote with bell at W end with flanking minaret style pinnacles. E end has central stepped 3 light window with outer lights separated by narrow blind panels; mandorla to gable; gabled end of Lady Chapel and vestries stepped forward and down to either side, 2 light E window to N and lancets to S. Church surrounded by boundary walls of rock-faced stone wth ashlar saddleback coping to S and W, piers and iron railings and gates; wall of rubble to N.

Interior

Banded polychromy throughout in the manner of William Butterfield or John Norton, here created by the contrast of red and buff coloured brick and sandstone. 5 bay nave with 2 order arcade on alternating octagonal and cylindrical piers; arch-braced roof with wind braces. Cylindrical clustered shafts with annulettes to clerestory windows and triple shafts with annulettes to high chancel arch. Continuous arcade of windows to aisles. The chancel has boarded and panelled roof and the sanctuary is enriched by floor tiles. Fine alabaster reredos with sculpture set in gable headed niches flanking central triptych sedilia and wall arcading. Twinned arches below organ loft and minstrels gallery; Lady Chapel has mosaic reredos. Original furnishings retained including octagonal stone pulpit with sculptured panels and pink and grey marble font on stout cylindrical columns; stained glass in E and W windows by Dixon, grisaille to N and S; tall doors to inner side of SW entrance. Father Willis organ built 1890.

Reasons for Listing

Grade II* because of the fine and well preserved interior and for its importance as an architectural landmark in the Rhondda Fawr.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• St Peter's Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17743336

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)