Catholic Church of St Joseph

On the W side of Monk Street, at its S end on the junction with Pendarren Street.

Neo-Romanesque church built 1866-8 to designs of Benjamin Bucknall of Swansea at a cost of £1,100. The builder was Mr Richards of Aberdare. Bucknall trained under Charles Hansom in Bristol, and went on to set up his own practice in Swansea. He designed the Catholic Church Our Lady and St Michael in Abergavenny (1858-60) and carried out alterations to St David, Swansea (1864) and St Mary, Monmouth (1870-1). He was also responsible for St Nicholas Seaman’s Church (1868) and St Matthew’s Church (1886) in Swansea, as well as some domestic building in the area (Glyn-y-Coed on Newtown Road, Mumbles). His practice (Bucknall & Jennings) later designed a range of notable buildings including the theatre at Craig-y-nos (1890, GI), the Palace Theatre in Swansea (1888).

The choice of neo-Romanesque style at Aberdare is unusual, particularly for this date – the style had been more popular in the 1840s. Bucknall was a keen proponent of the style and used it widely, such as at the Seaman’s Church in Swansea, at the same time as designing St Joseph. Later it influenced his design of St Matthew, also in Swansea, and the Church of the Holy Trinity at Llanegwad in Carmarthenshire (1878, GII*).

During the C19, Aberdare, like many towns in the valleys of S Wales, grew rapidly with industrialisation based on coal and iron ore in the surrounding area, and its population expanded from a relative low level of 3,000 in 1830 to 32,000 in 1861 and then to 43,000 in 1900. Much of the population growth was from immigrant workers and their families from Ireland, as well as from Italy.

To cater for the needs of this growing Catholic population in the early-mid C19 travelling priests visited the town from Abergavenny, Brecon and Cardiff with mass said at locations across the town, including the Bailey Arms, The Cross Keys and the Cardiff Castle Inn. The Rev. Augustine Neary established a mission in the town in 1854, which went onto serve Treforest, Mountain Ash, Hirwaun and Ferndale. The Rev. John Dawson was appointed as the mission priest and he was able, with local support, to raise the funding for the construction of a church and presbytery. Construction began in 1866 and the church was opened on 3 October 1868 by the Right Rev. Bishop Brown of Newport and Menevia. A Presbytery, attached to the W, was also built and set back from the street by a garden court on the side of the church.

From 1882 to 1911 under the stewardship of Rev James O’Reilly the baptistery, sacristy and Sacred Heart chapel were added, possibly to the designs of Bernard Smith of London (who was working for O’Reilly in designing a new church in Mountain Ash), or by F.R. Bates. Stained glass by Hardman & Co of Birmingham was added to the Sacred Heart chapel in 1910 in honour of Sr Gonzaga who had ministered in the town from 1885 to 1910. After WWII the parish priest Rev. John Cahalane carried out a range of alterations including a new organ, reordering of the sanctuary, and replacement of the tiled floor with Rhodesian teak boards. The baptistery has since been converted to an entrance and the original plaster ceiling of the nave has been removed. Painted copper panels of unknown date and artist, but originally part of the high altar, have been relocated to the liturgical E wall of the sanctuary. The church is clustered with those at Mountain Ash and Hirwaun and is served from the former, maintaining the historic connection of these communities.