St. David's Priory Catholic Church

Cadw's description

Location

Within modern precinct of St David’s Centre and close to W of roundabout at bottom of Princess Way. E end to Rutland Street. Church orientated N and S.

History

1847. By C Hansom. Enlarged 1864 when nave lengthened and N aisle added. Renovated 1894 and 1907 when Lady Chapel added.

Exterior

Plan of short chancel with side aisles, 5-bay aisled nave with dormer clerestory N and S porches, S vestry, confessionals and link building to Presbytery at SW. Late C13 Gothic style.

Dark snecked facings, pale sandstone dressings, slate roofs, tiled ridges, stepped buttresses. Steep E gable with parapet, Gothic oculus, 5-light traceried window with impaled trefoil lights and nook shafts, 3-light aisle windows (vertical joint at N aisle). Open bellcote over chancel arch, gabled ventilators, 2-light timber dormers (compare St Peter’s RC Church, Roath, Cardiff) with cusped bargeboards and diamond leaded glazing. Low aisle walls with 2 light windows (plate tracery S aisle; for tracery N aisle), cusped arch to gabled N porch. W front with tiled polygonal stair tower flanked by paired cusped lights under strainer arches, S aisle overlapped by Presbytery.

Railed forecourt with shouldered arches to stone gateways.

Interior

Interior with scissor-braced trusses on long wall-posts to chancel, arcades to side chapels with pitched ceilings. Tall chancel arch with head-stops, alternating polygonal and round moulded piers with crocket and acanthus leaves at NW corner, roof as chancel. Panelled dados, timber W gallery and screens, boarded aisle roofs with thin ribs.