Church of St Paul is a Grade II listed building in the Rhondda Cynon Taf local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 1 August 1996. A Victorian Church.

Church of St Paul

WRENN ID
watchful-foundation-juniper
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Rhondda Cynon Taf
Constituency
Rhondda and Ogmore MP: Chris Bryant (Lab)
Country
Wales
Date first listed
1 August 1996
Type
Church
Period
Victorian
Address
Church of St Paul, Birchgrove, Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taff
OS grid reference
ST 026 915
Coordinates
51.6144, -3.40747
Source
Cadw listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Paul is a Grade II listed Gothic building constructed from snecked rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, rock-faced quoins, decorative clay ridge tiles on the chancel, apex crosses, and a Welsh slate roof. The structure includes a nave, a slightly lower chancel, a gabled lower north aisle added in 1911, a cross-gabled south porch, and an unusually positioned belltower at the east-southeast corner. The south façade features cusped lancet windows with hoodmoulds and stops, along with intervening buttresses. The belltower has narrow lights and cusped louvres, while the east and west nave windows display geometric tracery. The north aisle contains perpendicular-style west and wide north windows, with a sill band and plinth.

Inside, the church has five bays open to a simple hammer beam roof. A notable feature is the unusual bayed chancel screen, which consists of slender narrow pointed arches made of painted wood and metal on a stone plinth. The richly painted wood reredos, which includes emblems of the passion and saints under canopies, is part of the 1925 refurbishment. This refurbishment also introduced stained glass in the east window by F C Eden and painted ceiling panels above the altar. The church is surrounded on the east, west, and south by a rubble stone wall, which mostly has saddleback coping to the south and iron rails to the east.

Local climate

Church of St Paul sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,150 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 88% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 57% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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