St Tudwal's Church

Story

St Tudwal's Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Barmouth, Gwynedd. It is situated on the King Edward Road leading from Barmouth to Llanaber. It was built in 1905 and is in the Dolgellau Deanery of the Diocese of Wrexham.HistoryOriginRoman Catholic worship started in Barmouth in 1890. A Fr. Donovan held services in the rooms of local houses until a small church was erected on Park Road. This was opened on 11 September 1891, on the very day that the steeple of the nearby St John's Church fell down. At the time, even though over forty years had elapsed since the re-establishment of the English and Welsh hierarchy, Wales had very few Catholics and the Catholic churches in the north of Wales came under the administration of the Diocese of Shrewsbury. In 1895, they came under the Vicariate Apostolic of Wales, then in 1898 it became the Diocese of Menevia. St Tudwal's was one of the few Catholic churches in the north of Wales at this time. It was created and persisted during this time of flux for Catholics in north Wales.ConstructionIn the 1900s, a new priest arrived, Fr. C. B. Wilcock from St Helens, Merseyside. He worked to have a new, larger, church built to accommodate the increasing size of the local congregation. The church was completed in 1905 and was opened by the first Bishop of Menevia, Francis Mostyn. The inscription on the foundation-stone, translated from Latin reads: