St Margaret's Church (, dedicated to St

Margaret of Antioch Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr () in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in Western Christianity, on 30th of July (Julian calendar) by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and on Epip ...

) is a nineteenth-century

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

parish church in the suburb of

Roath Roath () is a district and Community (Wales), community to the north-east of the Cardiff city centre, city centre of Cardiff, capital of Wales. The area is mostly covered by the Plasnewydd electoral ward, and stretches from Adamsdown in the so ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It includes the

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

of the Marquises of Bute.

History

A church dedicated to St Margaret existed in

since the medieval period. It was a small

Perpendicular style Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

building with a bell-turret at the western end.Memorial Inscriptions: Roath Church
British History Online (from
Cardiff Records, Volume 3
' John Hobson Matthews (ed.), 1901, pp. 545–552). Retrieved 22 August 2013. In 1800 a mausoleum was added, for the Marquises of Bute.Lynn F. Pearson
''Mausoleums''
Shire Publications Ltd. (2002), p. 39. The church was completely demolished in 1868 to make way for a new replacement. The new church was completed, with a cruciform plan in a Decorated Gothic style. The plan had been designed by Alexander Roos, architect to the Butes. The above ground church was designed by architect John Prichard and financed by

John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, (12 September 1847 – 9 October 1900) was a Scottish landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist, and architectural patron. When Bute succeeded to the marq ...

, who dismissed Roos when he came of age in 1868.Diane A. Walker, ''A Guide to the Parish Church of St Margarets, Roath'', Vicar & Churchwardens of the Parish of Roath (1994), pp. 1–2. A wide variety of coloured bricks and coloured stone was used to decorate the internal walls, in red, blue, white, grey-green and pink. The church tower (without the spire envisaged by Prichard) was designed later by John Coates Carter and completed in 1926. The glasswork of the church's east window was destroyed in a bomb-blast during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The present glass, dating from 1952, depicts the

Ascension of Jesus The Ascension of Jesus (anglicized from the Vulgate ) is the Christianity, Christian and Islamic belief that Jesus entering heaven alive, ascended to Heaven. Christian doctrine, as reflected in the major Christian creeds and confessional stateme ...

, flanked by the patron saints of the four daughter churches: St Edward's, St Anne's, St Agnes's and St Philip's. Of these churches, only St Edward's still holds a daughter position. St Agnes's closed in 1966 and St Anne's in 2015. St Philip is still an operational church, but is no longer in the parish after the boundaries were adjusted in the late 20th century. The church was designated a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1975.

Bute mausoleum

An ornate north aisle chapel was added to the church between 1881 and 1886, as the new mausoleum for the Bute family tombs. Seven large

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φ� ...

in red granite, were added to contain the remains of the members of the Bute family who had been interred in the previous church.Diane A. Walker, ''A Guide to the Parish Church of St Margarets, Roath'', Vicar & Churchwardens of the Parish of Roath (1994), pp. 10–11. The original stone memorial plaques were included in the new tombs. Those interred in the sarcophagi are: * Charlotte Jane Windsor, Marchioness of Bute (1746–1800) – first wife of the first Marquess. * John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute (1744–1814) * Frances Coutts, Dowager Marchioness of Bute (1773–1832) – second wife of the first Marquess. * John Stuart, Lord Mount Stuart (1767–1794) * Gertrude Amelia Stuart (died 1809) – widow of Lord Henry Stuart. * Lord Henry Stuart (1777–1809) – a son of the first Marquess and Charlotte. * Elizabeth Penelope Stuart (1819–1822) – daughter of Lord James Stuart.

Daughter Churches

St Margaret's now has only one daughter church, this being the nearby St Edward's on Blenheim Road. It formerly had several others: *St Francis, Splott, opened in 1894, stood on Singleton Street and was built primarily to serve the workers of the copper, steel and ironworks of the East Moors area. It closed in 1969. *St Agnes, Roath, opened in 1886, served the area south of Broadway. It was later transferred to the Parish of St German's. Its altar is now in St Mary's Butetown. It closed in 1966, though the name survives as a chapel in St German's, where its war memorial, is now located. * St Anne's, Roath opened in 1887. It closed in 2015. *St Philip's, Tremorfa was founded in 1930 to serve what was then a new council estate. It was originally a hall, which was replaced in 1937 by a tin tabernacle which had itself formerly been St Joseph's, Gabalfa and St Alban's, Splott, both of which had been replaced by permanent buildings. It was replaced by a permanent building in 1966. It was separated from the Parish of Roath in the late 20th century and has been partnered with St Mark's, Gabalfa since 2004.

Gallery

File:St Margaret's Roath interior.jpg, Interior of St Margaret's File:Bute_Mausoleum,_Church_of_St_Margaret,_Roath.jpg, Bute Mausoleum File:Saint Philip's Church, Tremorfa, Cardiff - geograph.org.uk - 5442254.jpg, St Philips, Tremorfa

References

External links

St Margaret's Church, Roath Parish

Church in Wales
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margaret, Saint, Church

Rebuilt church buildings in Wales Roath, St Margaret Roath, St Margaret Roath John Prichard buildings