Saturday, April 18, 2026
The church at the centre of Swansea and the devil that haunted it
As Wikipedia says, there has been a church on the site of St Mary's since circa 1328, which was erected by Henry de Gower, Bishop of Saint David's. It has rebuilt many times:
One Sunday morning, in 1739, the roof of the nave collapsed into the church while the congregation was waiting to enter the building. The whole structure was re-built apart from the tower. 1822 saw the church being lit by gas for the first time with thirty six lamps. The church underwent complete renovation between 1879 and 1882 by Vicar Dr Morgan. In 1896, the church was flattened and rebuilt again under the designs of Arthur Blomfield by Dean Allan Smith, though some parts of the old church survived the re-development. In February 1941 the church was extensively damaged by Bombing during the Blitz. It was not rebuilt until the 1950s.
He had his wish during World War II, when St. Mary's Church was destroyed in a bombing raid, but the devil carving remained unscathed. The original, carved devil was removed in the 1960s but later found and briefly displayed at the Quadrant Shopping Centre in the 1980s. It is now safely housed inside Swansea Museum.
Labels: lochist
