Connor Downs is a village approximately two miles (3 km) east of Hayle and about two miles south-southeast of Gwithian. This profile of Connor Downs Wesleyan Methodist Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.
1831 Chapel
Located at what is now (15) Trevarnon Lane. Side by side maps equate it to this white building which still stands out from the new builds behind it. Called The Old Sunday school.
A Wesleyan Methodist chapel is recorded at this location on the 1st Edition 1:2500 1880 OS Map. By 1907 it has become a Sunday school for the new chapel constructed to the south and is now shown on the current Mastermap as a dwelling. (Cornwall Heritage Gateway)
1831: The Checklist of Churches in the Hayle Circuit on the 31st August 1961 refers to a chapel of 1831.
1859: Build date. (SWChurches) Possibly Registration date.
Built as a Wesleyan chapel. (SWChurches)
3 Oct 1859: Memorandum of agreement, Wesleyan chapel, Connor Downs, Gwithian. Parties: 1) Trustees, Wesleyan Methodist chapel, Connor Downs 2) Nicholas Whitford, Martin Veall, John Tresise, George Bazeley, Thomas Jordan, all parish of Phillack and Roger Cock and Henry Eustace, both Gwithian. Parties of the second part to receive all seat rents and collections of the chapel until the loan of £25, given for alterations to the chapel, has been repaid. (Kresen Kernow X1057/2/1) Implies an earlier build date.
1887: Shown on map.
1905: Presumably when this chapel became a Sunday school.
1905 Chapel
A Wesleyan Methodist chapel is recorded at this location in Connor Downs on the 2nd Edition 1:2500 1907 OS Map. The Wesleyan congregation relocated here from their earlier chapel 176356 located slightly to the north some time before 1907. The chapel has been demolished and the site developed. (Cornwall Heritage Gateway)
“A special request for a photograph of the vanished Connor Downs (Lower) Wesleyan chapel, now lost to history, as the building has been demolished and the site redeveloped. I am only too happy to oblige from my collection with this postcard view of 1906, from the days when the building was still comparatively new, as it was a typical late nineteenth century chapel in the Gothic style with a little side entrance porch.” (David Thomas)
“Here’s another view of Mutton Hill in Connor Downs with the newly built 1905 Wesleyan chapel. The card was sent on 21 June 1905, only four months after the building was opened in February of that year. A collection of people gather on or just behind the roadway hedge in order to get into the picture. The photographer’s name is not given on the back of the card but could possibly be W J Bennetts of Camborne and Hayle (1850-1943). A lovely clear picture.” (David Thomas)
6 Apr 1903: Application form, permission to erect a new chapel, Wesleyan chapel, Connor Downs, Gwithian, Application form, Wesleyan Chapel committee, for permission to erect a new chapel, the old one to be used as a Sunday school. (Kresen Kernow X1057/2/5)
Mar 1904: Papers, tenders for building work, new chapel, Wesleyan chapel, Connor Downs, Gwithian. (Kresen Kernow X1057/2/7)
1905: Build date. (Checklist of churches in the Hayle Circuit on the 31st August 1961)
1905: Opening date. (SWChurches)
1905: Opening new chapel. (Cornishman – Thursday 16 February 1905)
1905: Certificate of worship, Wesleyan chapel, Connor Downs, Gwithian. Certificate of worship, recorded 13 February 1905. Kresen Kernow X1057/2/8)
1928: Plan, addition to vestry and organ chamber, Connor Downs Wesleyan Chapel. (Kresen Kernow DCWP/295/167)
1928: Tenders invited for building vestry and other works. (Cornishman – Wednesday 13 June 1928)
21 Sep 1928: Papers, permission to re-open chapel, Wesleyan chapel, Connor Downs, Gwithian. (Kresen Kernow X1057/2/16)
1932: The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and the United Methodist Church amalgamated to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
1932: Became Connor Downs (Lower) Methodist Chapel. (SWChurches)
Connor Downs Wesleyan Organ (Photo: courtesy David Philp)
Mar 1948: Certificate, for solemnization of marriages, Wesleyan chapel, Connor Downs, Gwithian. (Kresen Kernow X1057/2/20)
1966: Correspondence, repair for damage to manse and chapel, Wesleyan chapel, Connor Downs, Gwithian. Correspondence with Methodist Insurance Company Limited regarding repair for damage to manse and chapel, caused by storms. (Kresen Kernow X1057/2/21)
1981: Closed. (David Thomas)
1982: “The former 1905 ex-Wesleyan chapel on Mutton Hill in Connor Downs. A picture taken by myself coming on for 40 years ago on Monday 1st March 1982. At this time my note on the back says that the building was in the course of being gutted and that the chapel closed in late 1981. This illustrates the importance of keeping records. A lovely building and a sad loss architecturally.” (David Thomas)
Demolished to make way for housing.