History of St. Mary’s (Church of Our Lady of the Rosary) Me

Over the last three years there has been extensive renovation of the roof at the corners of the building to prevent continuing deterioration of the building’s structure and internal decoration. The project has also involved the installation of improved toilets and a small catering facility to enable the rear of the church to be used for social or community gatherings.

The project has involved considerable expense and has only been possible with the hard work of a group of parishioners who have encourage our community’s to financially support.

We are also indebted to the Heritage Lottery Fund, Cadw and the Welsh Churches Fund for extremely generous financial support.

The considerable effort of all those involved is most worthwhile when one considers that our beautiful building will continue to be of service to our congregation and the wider community in the future. 

I would like to express my appreciation for all of this tremendous support for a project that has one of my personal priorities during my time in St Mary’s. 

To complement this work we have prepared this brief history of St Mary’s, parish, which has been written by Dr Paul Price, to whom we offer our thanks.

We would also like to thank our friends at local motor car dealer Thomas and Davies for sponsoring the production of this booklet.

There was much celebration on 27th November 1927 to commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Parish of Merthyr in 1827 with the arrival in the town of Cardinal Bourne of Westminster. He was met at the local railway station, which had been designed by the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, by Abbot Matthews of Ampleforth, Fr. Leo Hayes (parish priest of St Mary’s Merthyr, Fr. Dawson (parish priest of St Illtyd’s Dowlais) and senior clergy from Cardiff. His visit did not go without incident as Cardinal Bourne seemed not to have been well prepared by his advisors and gave a talk later that evening to a local dignatories, on the controversial views of “L’Action Francaise”, a French right wing movement, whose views would have been at odds with those generally held in Merthyr Tydfil. There is some dispute as to whether the parish had in fact been established two years earlier in 1825 but, 1827 was decided as the anniversary of the arrival in Merthyr of Fr. Portal, the first resident priest in the town.

Clearly, the presence of Cardinal Bourne reflects on the significance of commemorating the centenary of the establishment of the parish in what during the 19thcentury was one of the foremost industrial towns in Great Britain.

We believe that worship is a powerful way to connect with God and experience His presence in our lives. Our worship services are designed to be uplifting, inspiring, and centered around the teachings of Christ.

       The establishment of the iron works at Cyfarthfa , Dowlais, Hill’s Plymouth and Penydarren at the end of the 18th century saw Merthyr emerge as the iron producing capital of the world. The Cyfarthfa works, established by Anthony Bacon in 1765 were to become pre-eminent under the ownership of the Crawshays and in response to the works producing weaponary for the Napoleonic wars, were visited in 1802 by Admiral, lord Nelson. The Crawshays were also responsible for the building of one of the most iconic buildings in Merthyr, Cyfarthfa Castleat a cost of £30,000 in 1825. 

Ownership by the Crawshays of the Glamorgan Canalsaw the remaining iron masters facilitate the construction of the Penydarren Tramroad which, in February 1804 witnessed the first running of a steam powered railway locomotive journey from Penydarren to Quaker’s Yard. 

Pioneered by the engineer Richard Trevithick this was the world’s first but by no means only association of Merthyr’s iron industry with the railways . Indeed, in 1825 the rails for the Stockton and Darlington Railway were rolled out at Dowlais.

The iron industry needed a considerable workforce and this saw the population of the town grow from 7,705 persons in 1801 to 46,378 by 1851. At this time the respective populations of Cardiff and Swansea were 18,351 and 21,533. By the mid 19th century Merthyr was by far the largest town in Wales. 

Irish Immigration in the 19th century.

There was a mass migration from parts of Walesand England, but also from Ireland, Italyand Spain. There were no Catholics in Merthyr in 1798, but the iron and coal expansion drove a population increase between 1800 and 1830 which was extensively Irish and earlier than the bulk of later Irish immigration. The western District reported to Rome in 1813 that there were very few Catholics in Walesbut the Franciscan Fr. Edward (Ignatius) Richards, who covered the area from Abergavenny between 1800 – 28, found about 300 in 1824. He recorded his Mass at Merthyr on 5th September 1824 as the first. He also recorded the names of 71 Irish workers and their wives. The date was 17th March 1826 and he was probably saying mass to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. In 1838 it was estimated that there were 3,005 Catholics in Wales, with 900 settled in Cardiffand 940 in Merthyr. Most were Irish, but records for Merthyr also include a number of Spanish inhabitants probably connected with a newly developed iron ore supply from northern Spain. The Catholic Directory for 1843 stated that there were 700 poor Irish employed in the iron and coal works of Merthyr and scattered at a distance of seven or eight miles around. They met for worship in a decrepit loft. The conditions in which many were housed in the Cellar Dwellings and in “China”, a local concentration of slum dwellings, were appalling.

The terrible consequences of the Irish Potato Famine (a Famine Memorial Cemeterywas established in Cardiff) saw the number arriving increase markedly from 1840. In 1847, for example, the ship, The Wanderer, docked at Newport ‘depositing 113 destitute men, women and children (with) ... 20 said to be close to death.’ Over 30,000 had arrived by 1860 with most settling in Cardiff, Newport, Swanseaand Merthyr. At first relations between the Irish and the indigenous population were discordant and the first race riot broke out in 1848 over the murder of a Welshman by a member of the Irish community. 

As the numbers increased the need to provide for the cultural and spiritual well-being of the Irish community intensified. By 1860 there were thirty-four churches mainly in the Valleys and coastal areas, but no native priests. Indeed, in the early 19th century a French priest Fr. Segan, who had been a chaplain to King Louis XVI, was in Swanseafor a brief period prior to returning to France. Waleswas truly “un pays de mission” and a number of good priests came from Irelandas well as members of the Religious orders such as the Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Carmelites and latterly, the Rosminians. Significantly, for the development of the Merthyr parish was the arrival in the region of Fr. Patrick Portal.

Fr. Patrick Portal

The first attempt to found a permanent mission in East  Glamorganshire was made by Bishop Collingridge O.F.M., Vicar Apostolic of the western District. It was decided that the priest reside in Merthyr as the largest centre of population and the largest number of men volunteering to have deductions made from their wages for support of the Mission also resided there.

The Missionwas first offered to Fr. Merton of Usk who refused it on the grounds that it would not be financially viable. Fr. Burke a Waterfordpriest serving Gloucester also declined an offer to serve the Mission. Fr. Patrick Portal the parish priest of Poole in Dorset was then approached and on acceptance, came to Merthyr in November 1827. Born in County Wexfordhe was in his early thirties when he came to Merthyr. A native Irish speaker, this was an essential skill when a majority of the parishioners were Irish speaking. He was helped at first by the businessman William Lewis who was Welsh speaking and who had been appointed as a catechist for Merthyr by Bishop Collingridge. Sermons were preached in Welsh, Irish and English and Mass was celebrated in the vestry of a chapel rented by William Lewis. Fr. Portal wrote that ‘This mission is one of the most severe and disagreeable I have ever heard of .... The poor people are extremely good and kind ... There is nothing here but hardship when out and solitude at home.’ Fr. Portal died on 19thNovember 1835 and was succeeded by Fr. Carroll who was given the task of looking after ‘his exiled countrymen.’

Fr. Carroll.

Fr. Carroll lived at number 7 Glebeland where he had two rooms and a small private school. He had no chapel but said Mass twice a day ‘in a dark low loft , without ceiling, beneath which is the foul, noisy public slaughter house of the town.’ Despite these hardships, the size of the Catholic community continued to increase, especially near the ironworks at Dowlais and so in or about 1846 he moved there permanently. He died the following year in 1847 possibly as a result of the outbreak of Cholera. A number of priests were recorded as having died of this disease during the year. At this time, however, there was no clear definition of priests working in a particular parish, but rather acting as missioners travelling over wide districts. Fr. Carroll was replaced by a Fr. Dawson who was also primarily based in Dowlais. He was supported by the Benedictine, Fr. Placid Sinnott, who was sent to help him with Merthyr. In 1859 St Illtyds and St. Mary’s were recognised as separate missions.

In 1852 a plot of land was purchased in Georgetown for the building of a Church and School. 1859 Fr. Sinnott built St. Mary’s Georgetown, but this was a hall and school rather than a church as his ground lease did not allow him to build a chapel! Fr. Sinnott lived next to the Church in bethel Street.

This new building was an improvement on the hired clubroom in which Sunday Mass was celebrated “with the accompaniment of a choir of dogs, cocks and donkeys.” Whilst there Fr. Sinnott began to keep the first baptismal registers which gave a valuable insight into the nature of the Catholic population at this time which was predominantly Irish with some Spanish but hardly any Welsh. 

In 1865 Fr. Sinnott moved to Rhymney and in 1866 a Fr. Bruton an Irish Carmelite came to Merthyr as his replacement. By 1861 the Mission was filled with a number of Carmelites who seem initially to have been Dutch in origin. It was Fr. Bruton who was to build the house and school in Court Street. When the present Church and presbytery was built Court Street was eventually to become a hostel for migrant Spanish workers.

Eventually, replaced by Benedictines, probably at the instigation of Bishop Hedley, it was a member of their congregation, Fr. Ross, who put forward a scheme for a House which was built by his successor, Fr. Wade. The inadequacies of the site in Georgetown which was beset by ‘dangers and nuisances which environ that building’ saw initial plans put forward to acquire land at Caedraw known locally as the Isle of Wight. Fr. Bruton who arrived upon the scene whilst the scheme was inchoate, speedily wound it up as impractical. Content to spend the rest of his Mission at Georgetown but put forth all his efforts for the provision of suitable school buildings and a residence for the priests.