Friends of St Mary's Church at Caerau Gallery News History Memories Book Grave Map Location About Contacts Copyright

Paul and Delia inspect damage and daubing.

St. Mary's News and Update

Summer 2014

Over the Easter holiday period very serious damage was inflicted on the remaining structure of St. Mary's church by person/persons as yet unknown. Police are continuing with their investigations.

This current damage is far worse than has happened previously, and it looks like professional tools may have been used.

Unfortunately, the security gate at the bottom of the church lane had been left unlocked for several weeks around the time damage occurred and this oversight may have been a factor.

Naturally, the Friends are saddened and bemused by this senseless attack on one of Cardiff's oldest church. Beautiful, even as a ruin, this historic landmark has defined Ely and Caerau for seven centuries and it is hard to understand why anyone would want to deliberately damage it.

This recent damage came at a time when we thought we were moving forward with getting the much-needed and long-awaited repairs completed, when the authorities obtained a second report which showed the church ruin to be generally stable, but neglected and in need of maintenance repairs to keep it safe.

Over the last three months, the Friends have held regular meetings with council officials, and 'actions' have been set down to get the repairs underway, despite this recent damage. Clearly, security is a factor, although it is surprising, given the importance of this ancient monument, that this has not been considered necessary in the past.

Until the outstanding repairs have been done, the Friends are reluctant to proceed with their plan to set up a fund-raising Trust to fund future repairs.

On a more upbeat note, the CAER Heritage Project won a much-deserved NCCPE Engage Award, being selected as the overall winner from 230 entries. Follow the link to see a fascinating film about the recent archeological excavations on the Caerau Iron Age hillfort. One aspect of the CAER Heritage Project's work has been the setting up of several heritage trails around Caerau and Ely. These are walking trails focused on the heritage and history of this amazing area and are well worth a look.

With my very best wishes and grateful thanks to all our supporters.

Delia

Damage to walls.
Damage to walls.		Tower hacked into.

Tower hacked into.		Buttress attacked.		Damage to walls.