Church of St Luke, Abercarn, Caerphilly

Entry Name: Church of St Luke

Listing Date: 5 March 1987

Last Amended: 17 December 1998

Grade: II*

Source: Cadw

Source ID: 1903

Building Class: Religious, Ritual and Funerary

Also known as: Church of St Luke, Abercarn
St Luke's Church, Abercarn

ID on this website: 300001903

Location: Set into the wooded hillside above the Ebbw Vale just above the centre of Abercarn, reached up a side road and approached through a shallow stone tiled gateway and up a steep terraced double flight of

County: Caerphilly

Community: Abercarn

Built-Up Area: Abercarn

Traditional County: Monmouthshire

Tagged with: Church building Early Gothic

Find accommodation in
Abercarn

History

Built 1923-6 (foundation stone dated AD MLM xxiii). By J Coates Carter, architect of Cardiff and Penarth. Became redundant in the 1980s. Interior originally lined with boarding with slender cast iron columns to aisles.

Exterior

Large church in dramatically simplified Early Gothic style. Of roughly dressed freestone and concrete with few ashlar dressings. Plan of aisled nave with parish rooms on lower ground floor at west end, tall S tower, chancel with overlapping aisles, N porch, SE vestries. 2-storey W front with tall, crenellated and buttressed centre bay, the buttresses with offsets, deep string and battered plinth; long and narrow twin lancets, sill band. At lower level is a wide central entrance doorway with deep recessed arch, cyclopean hoodmould, imposts and jambs, leaded fanlight over lintel. Outer bays have triple lancets over wide pointed arched opening to left with further lower ground floor entrance doorway below; to right two tiers of lancets. Nave clerestory and aisles with parapets, stringcourses, waterspouts; single and paired lancets, tall chimney at NW. N porch has square-headed doorway under hoodmould which extends to sides, cyclopean masonry; interior has concrete vault. E chancel parapet is stepped up with tunnel vault behind; E window of 5 stepped lancets. Tall square tapered S tower has projecting stair turret, corbelled crenellated top, paired louvred lancets to bell chamber, round-arched doorway with impost band, no buttresses.

Interior

Interior of exposed masonry and concrete; wide uneven 4-centred arches with polygonal piers without capitals to nave arcades, paired clerestory lancets over spandrels; quadrant arches abut similar wide chancel arch; flat ceilings. One step up to chancel, 3 to sanctuary and a flight of steps at W end leads to lower level entrance and rooms. No furnishings survive.

Reasons for Listing

Listed Grade II*, notwithstanding condition, as one of the most strikingly original churches built in Britain between the World Wars.

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

II Welsh Presbyterian Church
On a steeply wooded slope, close to the Church of St Luke, reached by a steep flight of steps from Gwyddon Road to S and by a drive from Twyn Road just off High Street.
II Abercarn War Memorial
In the centre of Abercarn Village, just E of the main thoroughfare, within a rectangular enclosed, part paved, public garden.
II The Gables
Near the centre of Abercarn, set on a wooded terrace high above Commercial Road and reached by a drive off Rhyswg Road.
II Terraced steps at The Gables
Set in the sloping garden below the garden frontage of the house.
II English Baptist Church and walled forecourt
Just S of Abercarn village on the main thoroughfare between Abercarn and Cwmcarn.
II English Baptist Church Sunday School
At right angles to the English Baptist Church, side-on to the main thoroughfare.
II Rhyswg Fawr Farmhouse and walled forecourt
High on the mountain reached by a long lane and track rising from the SE end of Abercarn village, on the S side of the Gwyddon valley.
II Barn at Rhyswg Fawr
Close to and on the same axis as the farmhouse but separated from it by a deep well; set into the slope a little downhill.

British Listed Buildings

History in Structure

Church of St Luke

A Grade II* Listed Building in Abercarn, Caerphilly

Coordinates