The Norwegian Church is a Grade II listed building in the docklands

Swansea docks

Swansea Docks is the collective name for several docks in Swansea, Wales. The Swansea docks are located immediately south east of Swansea city centre. In the mid-19th century the port was exporting 60% of the world's copper from factories situated in the Tawe valley...

 area of Swansea

Swansea

Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

. The church building was originally located at Newport Docks. The building consists of a Seaman

Seaman

Seaman is one of the lowest ranks in a Navy. In the Commonwealth it is the lowest rank in the Navy, followed by Able Seaman and Leading Seaman, and followed by the Petty Officer ranks....

’s Mission

Mission (Christian)

Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...

 to the west end and a single gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 church to the east end. It was originally built as a place of worship for Norwegian sailors when they visited the UK. It was relocated to Swansea in 1910 at a site directly opposite the Sainsbury's supermarket on the River Tawe

River Tawe

The River Tawe is a river in South Wales. It flows in a principally south-westerly direction for some from its source below Moel Feity in the Old Red Sandstone hills of the western Brecon Beacons to the Bristol Channel at Swansea. Its main tributaries are the right bank Upper and Lower Clydach...

.

In 1966 the Norwegian Seamen's Mission in Bergen told the last minister, Pastor Somerset, to abandon the Mission and return to Norway.

However, a Norwegian who had settled in Swansea, Eric Benneche, wrote to the Bishop of Bergen offering to run the church from the expatriate community's own resources. Permission was granted and the Bishop visited the church in person to present them with the key. Mr.Benneche was also allowed to officiate as a lay pastor at services, christenings, weddings and funerals.

He was followed in 1968 by the Reverend Vivian James (1927-2011). who kept the church going for a further thirty years. He had been a missionary to Lapland, Norway from 1953-1967 and preached in both English and Norwegian. When Pastor James retired in 1997 the lease on the church was not renewed and the last working Seamen's Mission Church in Britain closed for good.

With the redevelopment of the district, the building had to be relocated again. The building was covered in scaffolding and carefully dismantled and relocated alongside two other historic listed buildings - the Ice House and J Shed. The listed building now houses a a contemporary jewellery gallery 'Mari Thomas Jewellery Gallery', and is named after the director and contemporary jeweller, Mari Thomas. The gallery has been open since August 2008 with the intention to create a flagship centre of excellence showcasing the best of Welsh and International Designer Jewellery and Silverware.