St Mary's is located on the west side of Bute Street, set back from the road behind a small railed forecourt with crucifixion, with stone gate piers to the entrances at either end. It was built in 1843 by John Foster, architect of Liverpool, in 'Round-arched Style', to replace the destroyed medieval church. Modifications and additions were made from 1884 and 1907, including vestries by G. E.Halliday, Diocesan Architect, in memory of Rev Griffith Arthur Jones.

The church is built of coursed sandstone rubble, dressed with sandstone and Bath stone ashlar, and asbestos tile roofs. To preserve traditional liturgical orientation, the apparent main front of the church facing Bute Street is actually the rear of the church, with entrance front facing west. The east end towards the road is instead worked into a full-scale entrance composition flanked by pyramid-roofed towers with three portals decorated in zigzag, and a rope-moulded rose window in the gable. For access it is necessary to traverse the flank of the building - lean-to aisles and tall clerestory - to the understated west front. Here the (five-bay) nave projects one bay beyond the aisles and is flanked by twin turrets. Inside, the arcades have round-headed arches and massive cylindrical columns with Norman-style capitals and bases. The ceiling is flat. The west gallery is the sole survivor of the galleries originally on three sides of the church but removed in 1883. There is a windowless east apse where the pulpit was originally sited. The wrought-iron chancel screen at the west end (1890) was brought from St Dyfrig's church demolished in 1969 (NPRN 407414).

There is an elaborate painted scheme in the 1840–5 church, including ‘twelve white, life-size apostles’ by Searle of Exeter in 1884–5 reordering.

Sources include:
Extracts from: Cadw Listing database
J.Newman, Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan (1995), p.265.
Richard Suggett, Painted Temples: Wallpaintings and Rood-screens in Welsh Churches, 1200–1800, (RCAHMW 2021).

RCAHMW 2021




Its status in 1999 was still as a chapel.

The Church of 1843 was by John Foster ( Liverpool), the east end by J.D. Sedding (1884) and enlarged in 1907 by G.F. Halliday. Wallpaintings include paintings of St Winifred and St Margaret in the chancel arch.

Source: undated notes by A.J. Parkinson.

RCAHMW, December 2010