A summer of festivities
Richard Davies considers the history of St Peter’s Church, Little Newcastle, and looks forward to a series of 150th anniversary events
When Revd Arthur Richardson succeeded his uncle, Revd Peter Davies Richardson, as vicar of Little Newcastle in 1866, one of the first tasks he faced was the poor state of the parish church. St Peter’s had already had a chequered history: the medieval structure had probably consisted of a nave, north aisle and chancel, but the north aisle had been lost probably in the sixteenth or seventeenth century and the two bay arcade had been filled in.
At the start of the nineteenth century an attempt was made to improve the state of the building: one bay of the arcade was re-opened and a quarter of the north aisle was regained. In the 1840’s P D Richardson, initiated a second improvement plan and managed to regain the entire north aisle. However, due to various reasons, the building which emerged was of a very low quality and it was this which necessitated Arthur Richardson to initiate the third restoration in under seventy years.
The Diocesan Architect, E H Lingen Barker drew up a radical plan: he abandoned the north aisle, widened the nave, lengthened and widened the chancel and added a porch and vestry. Approval was gained in 1870, but work only commenced in the autumn of 1872 and the work was carried out in two phases, probably due to limited financial resources.
Though architecturally undistinguished, the structure is a text-book model of what contemporary ecclesiologists thought what a ‘proper’ church should be like with its three-fold ascending division of nave, chancel and sanctuary and the (limited) decoration to enhance the ‘theatre of worship.’ With the placing of the pulpit and organ each side of the chancel arch, each worshipper had an unrestricted view of the altar.
On 21 July 1875, Basil Jones, the then Bishop of St Davids, preached at the re-opening of the church and this July, almost a 150 years to the day, Bishop Dorrien will preach at the anniversary service, followed by a celebratory lunch.
His visit will be the high point of the celebrations, but a number of events have been planned throughout the year to mark this milestone in the history of the church, which has already included a lecture about the 1840’s church, a visit by the Pembrokeshire Historic Buildings Trust, whilst the Rogation Day walk will be a guided tour around the churchyard highlighting the number of interesting and important people buried there.
Later in the summer, amongst other events, the church will host two events organised by the Fishguard Music Festival, participate in the Open Doors Scheme in September and a Harvest Gymanfa will be held in October to help raise funds for next year’s National Eisteddfod which will be held in Pembrokeshire.