St David's Priory, Swansea (4th deposit), Records

Miscellaneous items relating to St David's Priory. Includes correspondance on the writing of a book of the history of St David's Priory, photographs and articles relating to celebrations held at the centenary of St David's Priory 1947, photographs and articles relating to the Corpus Christi processions in Swansea 1933, St David's Priory Council Constitution 1980, articles and correspondence relating to the centenary of the Catholic Emancipation Act 1929, photographs of the Corpus Christi procession 1951, correspondence relating the Catholic Demonstration in South Wales 1929, correspondence relating to an enquiry about a monk of St David's Priory who died in 1905 [?1978], programme from a performance of La Traviata 1966, newspaper article about the only medieval stained glass window in Wales in St David's Priory 1969.

St. David's Priory is the oldest Roman Catholic church in Swansea. It replaced an earlier church building which had been established c1808. Father Charles Kavanagh (d 1856) built the new church of St. David's in 1847 as well as the Catholic school adjoining St. David's. St. David's was enlarged and in 1864 a new presbytery was built. Most of the parishioners came from the Greenhill area and it became essential to build a church there and in 1866 St. Joseph's church opened. In 1873 the parish was taken over by the monastic Order of Saint Benedict, and St. David's Church was elevated to the status of a Missionary Priory. In 1875 St. Joseph's became an independent Mission and a larger new church was opened in 1888. Today the mission is divided into two districts, St. David's which is responsible for Catholics in the area south of Croft and Thomas Street and St. Joseph's which is responsible for the Catholics north of this line.

Please contact the Archivist at University of Wales Swansea regarding access to this collection.

Deposited in June1994.

A paper list is available.

Contact repository for details. No publication without written permission from the Archivist.

GB 217 LAC/99 St. David's Priory, Swansea, GB 217 LAC/144 St. David's Priory, Swansea (2nd deposit), and GB 217 LAC/145 St. David's Priory, Swansea (3rd deposit). Descriptions of these collections are available on the Archives Hub.