It was the first Roman Catholic church constructed in the county since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century.

Built circa 1790, some decades before the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, it was designed to look like an orangery, or barn, in order not to attract anti-Catholic hostility.

Following the Reformation, Monmouthshire, and particularly the north of the county, became an area of significant recusancy.

[2] The building is a long, single-storeyed, structure covered in white render.

The architectural historian John Newman suggests its design ensured the building; "could be mistaken for an orangery, as was doubtless intended.