Newlyn is a seaside town and fishing port on the shore of Mount’s Bay and forms a small conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance. This profile of Newlyn Trinity Wesleyan Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.
Chapel near the harbour
It will he observed that before this chapel was erected, a smaller one stood near the harbour. (Wesleyan Methodist Magazine January 1833 /Cornishman – Thursday 13 June 1940)
1834 Chapel
Trinity Wesleyan Chapel aka Jack Lane Wesleyan.
Located on Chywoone Hill.
866/8/10008 Trinity Methodist Chapel. Nonconformist (Wesleyan) chapel. 1834, enlarged 1866. Coursed killas with granite dressings at the front, painted rubble at the sides; dry Delabole slate hipped roof with projecting eaves. Large rectangular aisle-less plan with horseshoe-plan gallery. 2-storey elevations; symmetrical 3-window front end. Late C19 horned sashes within original openings, round-arched to 1st floor, the front windows over a sill string. 3 round-arched doorways to ground floor, the central doorway wider and within open distyle Doric porch with unfluted wooden columns and plain moulded entablature; spoked fanlight over panelled doors. The other doorways, giving access to the gallery, have more simple spoked fanlights over panelled and glazed doors. INTERIOR: complete refitting of 1866, with some free pews still flanking grained box pews and box pulpit-a very rare survival -incorporated into rostrum of 1880s; marbled cast iron columns to oval gallery, with stencilled decoration to panelled front, which has grained box pews, cornicing picked out in brown colours and stencilled frieze. Communion area (brought forward 1939) with turned balusters. Memorial windows of 1923-4. One of the best and most complete early C19 chapels in Cornwall having escaped the usual alteration to the simple front elevation and containing important and rare fittings, including the box pulpit incorporated into the later rostrum, and much of the 1860s decorative scheme. Chapel is on the English Heritage At Risk Register. (Methodism in West Penwith – A Heritage at Risk)
Wesleyan chapel. Enlarged at rear in 1866. Granite rubble with granite dressings under a slate roof. Simple classical style. Symmetrical 3-bay front with round-arched openings. Interior has original gallery and box pews and the original pulpit is incorporated into the rostrum. One of the few larger chapels of this earlier date that retains an unaltered front elevation and containing rare early gallery and pews. Listed and illustrated in Stell (1). (Cornwall Heritage Gateway)
Large, dressed granite Gothic style building alongside good 1834 chapel. A strident Gothic design with show-front end on the street. Now renovated and converted and extended for use as the MC (1). (Heritage Gateway)
1833: NEWLYN TRINITY METHODIST CHAPEL (By HERBERT RICHARDS). There are few places in England that have been more in the during recent years than the ancient fishing village of Newlyn, which lies mile west of Penzance, It has been immortalised on canvas by Stanhope Forbes R A. Newlyn has always been stronghold of Methodism, and the anniversary of the Methodist Chapel there which has been known as Trinity ever since the Methodist union, falls on Sunday June 18th. In its early days the little harbour at Newlyn was packed with brown sailed fishing luggers, whose crews were God-fearing men and who honoured the sabbath… The following concerning the history this chapel was written by the Rev. J Hobson, a one-time minister in Penzance Circuit. It will he observed that before this chapel was erected, a smaller one stood near the harbour. The village of Newlyn Town is a mile west of Penzance, in the lower part of which we have had good chapel and this we greatly improved last summer, and put in two neat side galleries, but with this increased accommodation we soon found that we had many more applications for pews than could be met; hence our friends determined on building another chapel in the higher and more thickly populated part the village, so that now we have two chapels in this place. He then says: Newlyn was first visited by Mr. Wesley on Lord’s Day July 12, 1747… Our new chapel is 25 feet by 27 feet without. It is on freehold land built with stone and cost £150… Sunday school formed… Meeting about enlarging the chapel. (Wesleyan Methodist Magazine January 1833 /Cornishman – Thursday 13 June 1940)
(Photo: Jo Lewis)
1834/35: Build date. (Cornwall Heritage Gateway / SWChurches)
1835: Founded. (West Penwith Resources)
Seating for 610. (West Penwith Resources)
1851: Wm. Roberts was steward. (West Penwith Resources)
Newlyn 30th December 1864
1866: Enlarged at rear. (Cornwall Heritage Gateway)
1866: Enlarged in 1866 with a complete re fitting.
1873: Survey reports 725 seats. (West Penwith Resources)
1902-1903: Correspondence, purchase of land, Trinity Wesleyan Chapel, Newlyn, Paul. (Kresen Kernow MRPZ/399 & 400)
1912: Miss Dorothy Tregenza of Newlyn laid the Foundation stone for the Wesleyan Sunday School.
1912 Sunday school build date. (Heritage Gateway)
The Sunday school (Photo: Jo Lewis)
1926: In the old chapel is a tablet commemorating Mark Guy Pearse who preached his last sermon there in 1926.
1928: Letter, registration of chapel for marriages, Trinity Wesleyan Chapel, Newlyn, Paul. (Kresen Kernow MRPZ/172)
1932: The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and the United Methodist Church amalgamated to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
1932: Became Trinity Methodist Church. (SWChurches)
1961: Papers, chapel repairs, Trinity Methodist Church, Newlyn, Paul. Packet of plans and papers relating to chapel repairs. (Kresen Kernow MRPZ/173)
1982: 150th anniversary souvenir booklet, Trinity Methodist Church, Newlyn, Paul . (Kresen Kernow MRPZ/403)
1997: The congregation ceased using the chapel, which is on the Heritage England “At Risk” Register, in the autumn of 1997 on the recommendations of the Surveyor at his Quinquennial Inspection. A scheme to redevelop the chapel through horizontal sub-division was abandoned on the upgrading of the chapel’s listing to Grade II*. Responding to the needs of church and community, the congregation redeveloped the adjacent schoolroom as a multi-purpose Church and Community facility known as The Centre. Trinity employs, to operate The Centre, a part time Development Worker and two part time assistants and has the support of a number of volunteers. The cause overall is supported by the giving of the congregation and friends, income from The Centre and rental from a house owned by the church (and which can be used only to support The Centre), income from the nearby Charity Shop run by volunteers from church and community, and grant aid for various projects run by the church or its partners. The present operation at The Centre is sustainable. However, the Chapel, costing tens of thousands in repairs and insurance over the last two decades despite not being used, has become a real threat to the viability of the church. Accordingly, and following extensive and expensive but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to find and fund a viable future for the chapel, the decision has now been taken by the church to put the chapel on the market. (Methodism in West Penwith – A Heritage at Risk)
2018: Trinity Chapel, Newlyn (Grade II*) is on the English Heritage At Risk List and remains there despite years of effort by its congregation to develop it. Newlyn Trinity, although officially still open, is unused since 1997 because of structural and other issues. (Methodism in West Penwith – A Heritage at Risk)
It is a grade 2 listed building and the Chapel is on the English Heritage At Risk Register
The church has been put on the market?
It is planned to re-submit a Heritage Lottery Fund bid for multi-purpose community use.
Trinity Centre – The Methodist church is now in the Sunday school. Responding to the needs of church and community, the congregation redeveloped the adjacent schoolroom as a multi-purpose Church and Community facility known as The Centre.
We are a community centre and Methodist Church at the heart of the community in Newlyn. Our purpose-built facilities are housed in the converted Sunday School on Chywoone Hill. We are home to Trinity Church and also host events, clubs and classes from a wide variety of community groups and organisations. http://www.thecentrenewlyn.org/
Trinity Methodist Church, Chywoone Hill, Newlyn, Penzance, has been sold for £142,000. We will watch this with great interest. This Grade II* listed former Nonconformist Wesleyan chapel, dating to c1834 and enlarged 1866, has one of the most complete early 19th century chapels in Cornwall. No longer used for religious worship. The building is in a conservation area. (Cornish Buildings Group December 2022)
