Llanarth Church & Llanarth Court

Llanarth Church & Llanarth Court
This is how I look on a good day!

My Family Background

I like the trees: they give me protection!

I am set in beautiful surroundings at Llanarth Court Hospital near Raglan, Monmouthshire.

Llanarth Court is a place with a long tradition of Catholic worship. It was once the home of the Herbert (Jones) family and in penal times Mass was celebrated at the House and priests were given shelter here. The church (that's me) originates from 1750 when the number of Catholics in the area was growing rapidly and the family chapel in the old house became too small to accommodate them all. John Jones and his wife had a building erected in the kitchen garden—disguised as a tool-shed. This was the original church of St Mary & St Michael. Later I was extended after the Catholic Relief Act of 1829.

Perhaps my most outstanding feature is my stained glass. I'll tell you about that a bit later. You can see it all here

St Mary & St Michael’s church (as I am known) has been graced by many school pupils over the years. During the Second World War a girls’ school from Roehampton was evacuated to Llanarth Court.

In 1947, following a bequest by the Honourable Mrs Fflorens Roch, the Court became the home of ‘Blackfriars’, the Dominican preparatory school for Laxton. Twenty years later the school took on a different form under the Benedictines of Belmont Abbey. This ended in 1986 when the Court ceased to be a school and St Mary & St Michael’s church came under the administration of the Archdiocese of Cardiff.

So you can see I've had a busy life. Today the Catholic community at Llanarth is a small but thriving parish served by Fr Nicholas James who also looks after our sister parish of St Mary’s in Monmouth. www.llanarth-catholic.org

No comments:

Post a Comment