St. Gabriel's Parish Church - Swansea, Wales.
N 51° 36.770 W 003° 58.113
30U E 432937 N 5718422
St. Gabriel's Parish Church - Built in 1888 to the memory of Jeffrey Morgan, an officer in the Royal Engineers, paid for by his younger brother Colonel W.Ll.Morgan. St Gabriel's is located in Brynmill, City & County of Swansea, South Wales.
Waymark Code: WMVQZN
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/20/2017
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St. Gabriel's Parish Church - Consecrated in 1889 By the Bishop of St Davids.
This imposing Church stands on a hillside between Bryn Road & Brynmill Cres. In the City & County of Swansea.
From the Church Website:
"Almost from its beginnings St Gabriels Swansea has followed the Catholic (or ‘high church’) tradition within Anglicanism. Whilst there is definitely evidence of this in the early years of the parish, it is especially to Fr M. H. Ll. Williams, the third Vicar (1911-1949), that this is due. He made every effort to beautify the church and to ensure that the Mass was at the heart of its worship. The church today continues to follow this tradition, although naturally the style of worship has changed to reflect changing liturgical perceptions.
In the 1880s Swansea was growing rapidly. Middle-class suburbs were spreading west. St Helen’s Avenue and King Edward’s Road had been built and houses were starting to climb up Rhyddings Park Road and Finsbury Terrace. To meet the needs of this new and expanding community a prefabricated church (or ‘tin tabernacle’) was erected at the top of what is now Rhyddings Park Road in 1886. This was only intended as a temporary expedient and negotiations were soon under way for the erection of a permanent church.
The owner of most of the land on which present-day St Helen’s and Brynmill are built was Colonel William Llewelyn Morgan.
He announced that he was ready to give a site for a church and £2,000 cash towards its construction and so work on what was to become St Gabriel’s started in 1888. There was one condition attached to Morgan’s generosity: the new church should be dedicated to St Gabriel, because that was the dedication of the church in Ethiopia in which his eldest brother, Jeffrey, was buried. Jeffrey Morgan, also an army officer, died while on active service in that country in 1867. Colonel Morgan remained a devoted member and a most generous benefactor of the church until his death in 1927.
The architect of St Gabriel’s was Thomas Nicholson of Hereford (1823-1895). He had previously built or restored a good number of churches in the Hereford diocese, but his only previous commission in Swansea had been St James, Walter Road. He was a diligent but rather unimaginative Gothic revivalist. As a restorer he was too heavy-handed and was said to have left ‘a trail of destruction’ in his home diocese. St Gabriel’s is probably one of his better churches.
The new church was consecrated by the Bishop of Saint David’s on 18 July 1889 (until the creation of the diocese of Swansea & Brecon in 1923 Swansea was in this diocese). In a low church town such as Swansea was in the nineteenth century, there must have been every expectation that it too would adopt this tradition. However, in those days the parish was home to many of Swansea’s professional and middle classes, the sort of people who were often attracted by the teachings of the Oxford Movement and the Catholic revival within the Church of England, and it soon became clear that this was the direction in which many of them hoped that St Gabriel’s would go." Text Source: (
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Mission Statement: from the Church Website:
"The Parish of St Gabriel’s strives to bear witness to Catholic faith and practice. As a parish of the Church in Wales, we seek to be a faithful and worshipping community of Christian people promoting our belief in Christ by word and deed. Pastoral and spiritual care is extended to all, particularly those in special need. A welcome is extended to anyone who wishes to worship with the Christian community here or who wishes to enjoy the fellowship and friendship we offer through our organisations and social events.
We are here to serve the local community of which we are a part. Such service is part of our witness to the love of Christ and is fundamental to our life as members of His Church. Our purpose then is to celebrate our faith in Christ and our following of Him by daily prayer and worship, by serving and caring for others and by promoting Christian concerns for peace, justice and unity both in our society and in the wider world." Text Source: (
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