Church of St Margaret of Antioch, Aberaman, near Aberdare

OPENING OF ST. MARGARET'S CHURCH, ABERAMAN. -  The formal opening of the new church erected through the munificence of Sir Geo. Elliot, Bart., M.P., at Aberaman, took place on Saturday. The Bishop of Llandaff having previously licensed the place, a service was held at eleven o'clock. The church, as a brass tablet to be fixed in the sacred edifice notifies, has been erected by Sir George Elliot, Bart., M.P., and dedicated to the glory of God in memory of his beloved wife, Margaret, and their daughter Elizabeth, 29th September, 1883." The church and ground adjoining are some two acres in extent, and the ground had been tastefully laid out, under the direction of Mr. Little, Aberaman, by Mr. Shaw, of Swansea. The church, which is calculated to seat about 400 people, is in the general style of architecture adopted in England in the reign of Edward I. and his two successors. The whole of the local stone for the walls and steps came from the Aberaman quarries, and the white brick from the Powell Duffryn Works. Mr. C. Shepherd, of Cardiff, was the contractor for the largest portion of the works, which have been carried out under the superintendence of Sir George Elliot's architect, Mr. E. H. Lingen Barker, of London and Hereford who also supplied the design for the building and all its details. [Weekly Mail 6 October 1883 page 3]

Built at the expense of Sir George Elliott for his employees in the Powell Duffryn mines. An unexceptional cruciform church with an eastern apse, badly in need of a vertical feature. Lancets and geometrical tracery. Stained glass - in the five eastern lancets Nativity to Ascension by Mayer & Co of Munich. West window - Faith, Hope and Charity by Jones & Willis 1899. [Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan Page 129]