Welsh Journals

A HISTORY OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH SKETTY, SWANSEA, by F. G. Cowley, published by the Vicar and Church wardens of St. Paul's Church, Sketty, Swansea, 2001. xv + 132pp. illustrated. £ 9.99. As part of the plans to celebrate in 2000 the 150th anniversary of the foundation of St Paul's church Dr F. G. Cowley undertook to write a history of the parish of Sketty. He has, in fact, produced a major contribution to the history of Swansea. In the 1840s Sketty was a very small village, little more than a huddle of houses, which had grown up around the intersection of the road leading from Swansea to north Gower and the road from Fforestfach to Swansea Bay. When John Henry Vivian bought the house called Marino, which he transformed into Singleton Abbey, and acquired the park land which stretched from the coast road to what is now Sketty Road, he created a new social centre which would affect the development of this small village. A family tragedy in 1848 moved his son, Henry Hussey Vivian, to build a church at Sketty. Ten months after the wedding of Henry Hussey and Jessie Goddard his young bride died in childbirth, and he and his father determined to build the church as her last resting place and memorial. It became the Vivian mausoleum, and the family retained a strong proprietorial interest in the church. When pew rents and private pews were abolished in 1925, the privileges of Averil, dowager Lady Swansea, were carefully protected. The church itself is an exceptional building in Swansea. As an undergraduate, Henry Hussey Vivian was much influenced by the Tractarians, and his architect, Henry Woodyer, designed for him a simple country church which was a charming and felicitous example of the Gothic style so much favoured by high churchmen. Until they moved away from Swansea, the Vivians lavished much on their church, with their memorial chapel and vault, furnishings, elaborate decoration, and stained-glass windows. These windows, their themes, and their armorial shields are examined in detail in a chapter by Professor Maurice Broady who admires the donors' piety, though not always their taste. From the beginning of the twentieth century, other families, notably the Glasbrooks, were generous patrons. The church has been enlarged on a number of occasions. A north aisle and organ