Zion Congregational Church
Llanhilleth, Gwent
Our Lady of Peace, Newbridge, was built in the late 1930s. The complex consists of a tall basilica style church with five storey bell tower. Attached at the front of the church is a small single storey wing housing the sacristy which in turn is attached to the presbytery.
The foundation stone of the church was laid by the late Archbishop Francis Mostyn on Sunday 16th April 1939. Unfortunately, his Grace did not live to see its completion, and was solemnly opened some eight months later by the late Bishop of Menevia on Sunday 10th December 1939.
The church was described in the souvenir booklet from the consecration as;
The church is 125 feet long, including the baptistry, and 32 feet wide, and is built in the modern Italian style, with campanile and belfry 85 feet high, surmounted by a ten foot cross in English oak. There is seating for at least 250. The high altar, lady altar and pulpit are in plain Trevertine marble, and the candlesticks of antique silver. The woodwork of both church and sacristy is plain limed oak, with flooring of granwood blocks; the flooring of the portico and baptistry being of welsh slate. The font is carved from Forest of Dean stone.
London based Architect PD Hepworth designed the church. Hepworth (1890-1963) was a British Architect, with his most renowned work being that of the Walthamstow Town Hall (1942), which he won through an architectural competition in 1932. Hepworth’s works were described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner in 1954 as in the Swedish style of c.1925 which became so popular in England amongst those who were not satisfied to be imitatively NeoGeorgian not wanted to go modern or earnest. Hepworth was appointed to the Royal Academy of Arts Planning Committee for the rebuilding of London following the damage cause during the blitz. The committee was chaired by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who was a good friend of Hepworth. Following the completion of Our Lady of Peace, Hepworth progressed his career designing war memorials and was appointed the Principal Architect for North West Europe for the Imperial War Graves Commission.
