The Immaculate Conception Parish, Treorchy

History

In 1913, Bishop Hedley sent a newly ordained priest, Fr Thomas Crowley, to establish a parish in Treorchy. Lodging with a priest further down the valley, Fr Crowley started celebrating Mass for 20-40 people in a room in the Park & Dare Cinema. Despite the challenges of raising funds during the First World War and caring for Belgian war refugees, a foundation stone was laid in 1915 and the first Mass celebrated in Treorchy’s Catholic Church on Easter Sunday, 1916. The church, on Glyncoli Road (CF42 6SB) was dedicated to Our Lady as the Immaculate Conception. (You can see it as it was in 2011 on Google Streetview, and view its Coflein Registry entry.) We do not have the rights to a better photo which we can paste on this page but you can also view the late Mike Berrell’s photo on this site.

Sadly, in the first decade of the 2000s it became apparent that it was unaffordable to run 4 Catholic Churches in the Rhondda Valleys. The site was sold for redevelopment and the funds were used to assist with the re-ordering of Ss Gabriel & Raphael Church in Tonypandy. The closure prompted an article in the local Welsh language newspaper, Y Gloran. The last Mass was celebrated on Palm Sunday, 28 March, 2010.

Priests

Based on our sacramental registers, the following priests were serving the parish and can be assumed to have been the Parish Priest:

1913-26 Thomas Crowley
1926-30 Paul. J. Fitzgerald
1930-36 John Coghlan
1936-41 William Joseph Skelly
1942-51 Thomas Crowley
1951-52 Richard Handford
1952-57 Patrick Connell
1957-59 Paul Francis Fitzgerald
1960-69 Bernard Driscoll
1970-72 John Clancy
1972-79 Frank Slater
1979-88 Michael Hegarty
1989-93 John Griffiths
1993-94 Eddie O’Connell
1994-95 Marshall Gibbs
1996-2000 Clive Loosemore

Treorchy then became part of the unified Rhondda Parish on 6 August 2001 and was served by:

2001-06 Mark Rowles
2007-08 was marked by a brief experiment with a team ministry serving the Rhondda Parish alongside Treforest and Caerphilly: Priests John Griffiths, David O’Donnell and Gareth Leyshon, with deacons Geoff Beach and Mel Morrissey.
2008-12 David O’Donnell
2012-14 Silvio Briffa
2014-16 Tadeusz Rutkowski
2016-22 No parish priest – pastoral care led by Sr Berenice O’Dwyer SSJA
2023- Gareth Leyshon (resident outside the parish, pastoral care still led by Sr Berenice)

Registers

Registers for Sacraments and Funerals celebrated at Treorchy are now held at Ss Gabriel & Raphael Church in Tonypandy. On 6 August 2001, the Ferndale and Treorchy parishes were joined to Tonypandy to form The Rhondda Parish and new registers at Tonypandy were started for the combined parish.

Registers we hold are as follows:

Treorchy Baptism Register (B1.1): 30 November 1913 – 21 July 2001
Treorchy Reception Register (R2): 25 March 1980 – 11 August 1996
Treorchy Confirmation Register (C3): 25 May 1927 – 3 December 1995 (after which the Tonypandy Register was used)
Treorchy Marriage Register (M1.3): 25 July 1919 – 20 September 1997
Treorchy Funeral Register (D1.2): 15 December 1930 – 6 November 1990

Registers which were closed more than 100 years ago are often deposited elsewhere. We have not verified the locations of our past registers but you may have success at the Glamorgan Country Records Office or the Archdiocese of Cardiff Archive.