Holy Cross Church, Port Talbot, also known locally as the "

Chapel of Ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately b ...

", is a Victorian church located centrally in the

Taibach Taibach or Tai-bach ( en, Little Houses) is a community and suburban district of Port Talbot, Wales. It is a settlement centered on the main A48 road, sandwiched between the river Ffrwdwyllt and Margam. Parts of Margam are within the community bo ...

district of

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the sout ...

, Wales. Prior to the building of the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

flyover through the centre of the town in the 1960s, it was in the centre of a residential area, but it is now dominated by junction 40 of the motorway. The land was originally donated by C. R. M. Talbot, MP, the owner of the

Margam Abbey Margam Abbey ( cy, Abaty Margam) was a Cistercian monastery, located in the village of Margam, a suburb of modern Port Talbot in Wales. History The abbey was founded in 1147 as a daughter house of Clairvaux by Robert, Earl of Gloucester, an ...

estate, as a church for local people who could not get to the abbey itself to worship. The church was built in 1827 by the Shrewsbury architect

Edward Haycock Sr. Edward Haycock Sr. (29 July 1790 – 20 December 1870) was an English architect working in the West Midlands and in central and southern Wales in the late Georgian and early Victorian periods. Biography Haycock was the grandson of William Hayco ...

, with

William Bruce Knight William Bruce Knight (1786–1845) was Dean of Llandaff from 1843 until his death. Life Bruce Knight was born in Braunton, Devon, to John Knight and his wife Mary Bruce; when he was young the family moved to Llanblethian in the Vale of G ...

as its first vicar, and fell within the parish of

Margam Margam is a suburb and community of Port Talbot in the Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway. The community had a population of 3,017 in 2011; the built up area being larger and extending into ...

, as a chapel of ease to Margam Abbey. It had a capacity of 500. After the building of

St Theodore's Church, Port Talbot The Church of St Theodore is a parish church of the Church in Wales in Port Talbot, Wales. Located on the A48 opposite Maes-y-Cwrt Terrace and bordered on two sides by the Talbot Memorial Park, it is administered within the diocese of Llandaff. ...

, Holy Cross became a subsidiary of the new parish of Taibach. In 1903 Holy Cross was upgraded, with G. E. Halliday as architect, to bring it up to the standard of a parish church, and a

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, ...

was added. The parents of the actor

Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...

were married at the church in 1936.

Closure

The church closed at the end of December 2008 after part of the ceiling collapsed. It was declared redundant by the

Archbishop of Wales The post of Archbishop of Wales was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and disestablished. The four historic Welsh dioceses had previously formed part of the Province of Canterbury, and so came unde ...

, Barry Morgan, in 2009. The cemetery contains several war graves in the care of the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...

. A proposal to turn the church into a private residence met with opposition from those with relatives buried in the churchyard. It was then proposed to convert the building into a chapel of rest instead. The chapel was taken over by a local funeral director in 2016.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures completed in 1827 Grade II listed churches in Neath Port Talbot