All Saints' Church, Oystermouth (officially "All Saints, Oystermouth") is an Anglican church in the

diocese of Swansea and Brecon The Diocese of Swansea and Brecon was established as a Diocese of the Church in Wales in 1923 with Brecon Priory as the cathedral. The area of the diocese had formerly been the Archdeaconry of Brecon within the Diocese of St Davids. The dioc ...

, south Wales. It is located in

Mumbles Mumbles ( cy, Mwmbwls) is a headland sited on the western edge of Swansea Bay on the southern coast of Wales. Toponym Mumbles has been noted for its unusual place name. The headland is thought by some to have been named by French sailors, ...

and is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

(listed 23 April 1952 as "a large church with substantial medieval fabric and good interior detail including early medieval

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman ...

and

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

and C20 glass") The church stands on a hillside, not far from

Oystermouth Castle Oystermouth Castle ( cy, Castell Ystum Llwynarth) is a Norman stone castle in Wales, overlooking Swansea Bay on the east side of the Gower Peninsula near the village of Mumbles. The early castle A number of Antiquarians state that the Norman ...

. The building is estimated to have been built in the mid-12th century, having first been mentioned in writing in 1141. It originally consisted of a

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

on its western side, a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and a lower

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

; the former nave are now the south aisle. A porch was constructed on the northern side in the 19th century, and in 1873 an organ chamber and vestry were built, to the design of

Richard Kyrke Penson Richard Kyrke Penson or R. K. Penson (19 June 1815 – 22 May 1885) was a Welsh architect and artist. Richard Kyrke Penson was a leading Gothic Revival architect. His work, covered the counties of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Cardigan, De ...

. The church was substantially reconstructed in 1915, adding a new nave and chancel and a north aisle. The formerchancel became the

Lady Chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, an ...

. Oak panels for the altar in the Lady Chapel were carved in 1937 by the Revd J. D. Davies. The stained glass in the church includes a memorial window, commemorating the

Mumbles lifeboat disaster The Mumbles lifeboat disaster occurred in 1947 off south Wales when the Mumbles lifeboat was undertaking a rescue off Sker Point but was overwhelmed by the sea with the loss of all eight lives in the lifeboat. History Mumbles Lifeboat station i ...

of 1947; it shows lifeboatmen at work and was designed by Glantawe Studios and installed in 1977. There are memorials in the churchyard to the eight members of the Mumbles lifeboat crew who were killed in the incident. The most notable grave in the churchyard is that of the English doctor and editor

Thomas Bowdler Thomas Bowdler, Royal College of Physicians, LRCP, Royal Society, FRS (; 11 July 1754 – 24 February 1825) was an English physician known for publishing ''The Family Shakespeare'', an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays edited by ...

, who died in Swansea in 1825. A former

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, Dr

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...

, attended the church as a boy, and was mentored by Eddie Hughes, vicar from 1946 to 1976.

References

{{Coord, 51.5739, -3.9976, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed churches in Swansea 12th-century church buildings in Wales Mumbles

Further reading

References