The original Church of St Martin was known with affection as ‘The Tin Church’ built in the
later part of the nineteenth century. It was dedicated, for reasons that are now unclear, to
the somewhat obscure ‘St Martin of Tours’. A probable solution being that the 11 th
November, the day the church was dedicated, is the day that the church remembers the
good works of St Martin.
This acknowledged ‘temporary building’ served the community until 1922. From then until
1949 there was no Anglican Church in Dunvant. But it was always planned that someday a
Church dedicated to St Martin would return to serve those who lived in Dunvant, the dream
becoming a reality in 1949.
On July 26th of that year the bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Right Reverend E.W.
Williamson dedicated the new St Martin’s. It was said that this was the first church to be
opened in Wales following the Second World War, but it was not the first to be built. The
new church was housed in a building that had been a one-time grocer’s shop on Fairwood
Road, Dunvant. That business had ceased a few years earlier and its owner, Mr Digby Jones,
sold it to the church at a small fraction of its true price. This gesture seems to have
precipitated an outpouring of generosity as many generous gifts were given by members
from other religious centres to furnish and decorate the church.
But perhaps the most remarkable of all the gifts for the new church was the bell, which was
and is a living commemoration of St Catherine’s, Swansea, a mission church destroyed in the
blitz. During the bombing its bell was blown many hundreds of feet away from the church,
to be rescued relatively intact and donated, eventually, to St Martin’s.
Gower Ministry Area 