Friends of St Augustine's Penarth, Wales

Thu, November 28th, 2024

The Most Difficult Parish in the Diocese

Posted in the News Category

News

The evening of 28th November was chilly but 23 people braved the cold and came to the Parish Hall to hear Chris Riley’s talk on The Most Difficult Parish in the Diocese and covered the period from 1860 – 1910.

This charted the difficulties following the creation of a new Anglican church to cater for the growing needs of a rapidly expanding Penarth.

At one time St Augustine’s was the only Anglican church in Penarth and the churchyard was the only burial ground.

In the 1860s Charles Parsons was Rector of Penarth and the old mediaeval church of St Augustine was demolished to make way for the new church paid for by Baroness Windsor.  It was her vision for Penarth to be an Anglican town.  There was already a Welsh Calvinist church in Llandough and the members had had to raise the money for the buildings themselves.

A popular curate was Mr Playter and he preached at the Iron Church set up at the corner of Rectory Road and Stanwell Road in 1881.  One evening he preached an “unacceptable” sermon verging on heresy and was asked to leave.  He retired from Penarth in the late 1880s and died in 1919.

In 1889 Lord Windsor offered Rev Charles Parsons £3,000 to build a new church (All Saints) in Victoria Road.  Charles Parsons left Penarth in August 1889 and was succeeded by the Rev. William Sweet-Escott.  All Saints was designed by Samuel Brain and John Coates Carter. The foundation stone was laid in September 1890 and the church opened in November 1891.  S A Brain was the Treasurer of the church.  The first curate in charge was Wyndham Selfe Heathcote.  All Saints thrived and in 1896 new parish rooms were opened in Woodland Place. In 1897 Rev Heathcote criticised the building of new non-conformist chapels.

To be continued