The church of St Mary the Virgin was built by Thomas Foster for the 2nd Marquis of Bute in 1843, to grace his newly planned Butetown. It was also the successor to the Norman St Mary's Priory which had been washed away by floods. The dramatic east façade is a sham, with fake windows and doorways: you must go to the other end to enter. Why was this done? Because it was the flagship docklands church, heralding the approach to the docks and associated business centre, so had to appear most striking from this end.
Originally built to house 1800 people, it had galleries on three sides and a three-decker pulpit. All this was swept away in the 1880's, when the vicar, with architect J. D. Sedding, brought in white life-sized figures of the twelve apostles, a painted reredos of the Adoration of the Shepherds by Philip Westlake (fresco painter from the castle) and murals of Saints Margaret and Winifred on the sides of the sanctuary arch. Stations of the Cross by Kenneth Smitham are thought to be the finest in Cardiff and there is a Spanish-style wrought iron west screen by Cecil Hare, which was brought from the demolished St Dyfrig's in Wood Street. A more recent addition is the stained-glass window dedicated to those who died on Arctic convoys to north Russia between 1941 and 1946.
Unfortunately, if you want to see all this, you will only find the church open around services or on most Saturday mornings between 11.00 and 12.45.
But for many, the church's main claim to fame is one name in the baptismal register – Tiger Bay girl, Shirley Bassey.
We are pleased to record our thanks to the vicar and churchwardens for their help and approval to setting this cache.