📖 St Padarn's Institute

St Padarn's Institute is a theological training college owned by the Church in Wales, located in Llandaff in the north of the city of Cardiff, Wales. It operates as a residential training college for its full time ministers. The origins of St Padarn's are in St Michael's College, an Anglican training college founded by the Church of England in Aberdare in 1892. In 1907 St Michael's relocated to Llandaff. Among its many alumni was the poet R. S. Thomas. The original building on the site was a house by John Prichard, the diocesan architect for Llandaff, built for himself. After his death, that building was incorporated into St Michael's. Other college buildings were constructed mainly to the designs of F. R. Kempson between 1905 and 1920. In the late 1950s, a chapel was built by George Pace. The college had significant financial problems in the early 21st century and was eventually closed. The Church in Wales bought the site in 2016 and reopened it as St Padarn's.