Kerthen Wood, or Kirthen Wood, is a hamlet near Townshend in the civil parish of Crowan. This profile of Kerthen Wood Wesleyan Chapel has been compiled by Jo Scott and Tony Mansell.
Heading north from Relubbus on Gurlyn Hill, then Bosworgy Road, brings us to an unmade track signposted Kirthenwood Nurseries. There was a Wesleyan Chapel down this track on the right, now lost.
A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1825 at Kerthen Wood (b3). It is marked on the c1840 St Erth Tithe Award and Map (b1). It also appears on the 1st Edition 1:2500 1880 OS Map (b2) but is missing from the 2nd Edition 1907 1:2500 OS Map and has now been destroyed; there are no extant remains (b3). (Cornwall Heritage Gateway)
“A non-extant Wesleyan Chapel at Kirthen Wood after c 1840”. (Historical Place names of Cornwall)
1825: Build date. (Cornwall Heritage Gateway)
1877: Indicated on maps.
1907: No longer indicated on maps.
It is on the 1822 plan that I posted a few weeks back on methodist chapels in Cornwall.
Whilst researching I came across this reference to an 1830 petition to the House of Lords for the abolition of slavery from ‘Kerton’ Wood and Deveral Chapels:
Slavery, Petitions for Abolition of: (Lutterworth:)
Upon reading the Petition of the Members of the Independent Congregation of Protestant Dissenters of Lutterworth, in the County of Leicester, whose Names are thereunto subscribed; praying their Lordships “to grant to the Negro Population of the Colonies Laws by which their present Circumstances shall be wholly ameliorated, their Persons and Families protected, their Civil and Religious Liberties secured, and the Means of Christian Instruction afforded them:”
It is Ordered, That the said Petition do lie on the Table.
Deveral & Kerton Wood:
Also, Upon reading the Petition of the Members of a Society and Congregation of Wesleyan Methodists worshipping at Deveral and Kerton Wood Chapels, in the County of Cornwall, whose Names are thereunto subscribed: From: British History Online Source: House of Lords Journal Volume 63: 16 November 1830. Journal of the House of Lords: volume 63, (). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16932&strquery=deveral chapel#s786 Date: 13/03/2005 © Copyright 2003-2005 University of London & History of Parliament Trust
Fascinating Guy.