Mapping Methodism – St Levan Little Trethewey Wesleyan Chapel, Polgigga

Polgigga is a hamlet in west Cornwall on the B3315 Land’s End to Penzance road and within the civil parish of St Levan. It is eight miles west of Penzance and two miles east of Land’s End. This profile of St Levan Little Trethewey Wesleyan Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.

Little Trethewey Methodist Chapel can be found on the B3315 (Polgigga) at the junction with School Hill. It replaced Sowa (Sawah) and Bottom Chapels.

The chapel has its own burial ground and has commonwealth war graves. There is a War memorial opposite.

Wesleyan chapel. Extended in the 1890s. Stucco with stucco detail under a scantle slate roof. Classical style. Single-storey elevations. 2-window pedimented front end; round-arched windows with moulded architraves set in recessed panels. Entrance front has porch between windows, and small transept on the right. Good interior with end gallery; original box pews. Ritual east end has balustraded rostrum and balustraded front to choir gallery and organ. Dressed granite forecourt walls and gate-piers and original wrought-iron gates with cast-iron finials. Part of a very good group with a detached Sunday school and a caretaker’s cottage with stables. Listed in Stell (1). (Heritage Gateway)

Little Trethewey Methodist Chapel, Little Trethewey, St. Levan – Cornwall. Built as Wesleyan Chapel in 1868. Small chapel with stuccoed Italianate front. Modest and complete interior with closed box pews. The chapel is in a bad condition with holes in the roof. The downpipes are blocked and external render is failing. Front gable is unstable and resulted in damage to the interior. Chapel closed April 2013. The condition continues to deteriorate. Historic England grant aided repairs in 2015 that covered the roof with a temporary sheet covering. The chapel has been sold and Historic England looks forward to discussing its future with the new owner. (Historic England)

Detached Sunday school next to 1868 Wesleyan chapel, possibly built as Sunday school for the chapel but may have been adapted from an older chapel. Granite rubble with granite dressings under a scantle slate roof with crested and pierced clay ridge tiles. Long low building with stuccoed front end with gabled porch. Side wall facing chapel has 4 sash windows and a gabled porch towards the right. Part of a good group including caretaker’s cottage, curtilage walls and stables. (Heritage Gateway)

St Levan Methodist Church (Sunday school building). Next door to the original Chapel on the B3315 at Polgigga and marked as a Sunday school on old maps.

(Photo: Barry West)

1868: Build date. (SWChurches)

7th September 1868: Foundation Stone laid

13^th October 1869: St Levan. Opening of the New Wesleyan Chapel. The opening services of the new Wesleyan chapel, St. Levan Cross, commenced on Friday, 8th inst., when a sermon was preached, at 3p.m., by the Rev. James Osborne, of Devonport. At 5 o’clock, about 180 persons took tea in the Bottoms day-school room, tickets 1s each. The meeting afterwards adjourned to the new chapel, where addresses were delivered by H. Hodge, Esq., who presided, the Revs. A. Wilkinson and G. Smith, circuit ministers, and the Rev. J. Osborne. The report read at the meeting showed the total cost of the building (including the site valued at £20,) somewhat to exceed £600. Towards this the sum of £325 8s 9½d has been promised in cash and labour, including, however, the site, and £325 2s 9½d has been actually received. The services were continued on Sunday, the 10th inst., when two excellent sermons were preached in the morning and evening by the Rev. James Osborne. The weather was beautifully fine, and all the services were very well attended. The total proceeds for the two days were £17 2s 1d. Two more sermons will be preached on Sunday, the 17th inst., (Feast Sunday,) by the Rev. R. M. Wilcox, of Penzance, chairman of the Cornwall District. H. Hodge, Esq., of Bosistow, St. Levan, has been the most liberal donor to the undertaking, and the most energetic worker in it – £50 money, the site (which includes a burial ground) and a great deal of teamwork were given by him, and his care and oversight have been incessant. It is clear that nearly £400 could not have been raised in so thinly peopled a locality, without praiseworthy liberality on the part of all. Many friends, also, in the circuit and neighbourhood have given generous assistance to the work.

20^th October 1869: St Levan. The Concluding Services in connection with the opening of the new Wesleyan chapel, St. Levan, were held on Sunday, the 17th inst., when two excellent sermons were preached by the Rev. R. M. Wilcox, of Penzance, chairman of the district, to large congregations, the chapel being in the evening much crowded. The total amount raised at the whole of the services is £55, which makes £380 received and promised, out of rather more than £600, the cost of the chapel and appendages when completed. The building, designed by Mr. J. Trounson, of Penzance, is in the plain Italian style, 48ft. by 30ft. exterior dimensions, and 20ft. from floor to ceiling. The material is granite from the neighbourhood, stuccoed, and pitch-pine fittings; and the whole work reflects credit on both architect and builders.

20^th October 1869: The Re-opening of St. Levan Chapel. At this ceremony, Oct. 8th, the following report was read:—St. Levan New Chapel, Oct. 8th, 1869. The want of a new chapel, to substitute Sowa Chapel, which is in a weak, and Bottoms Chapel, which is in a dilapidated, condition, has been felt for several years; but some difference of opinion as to the most desirable site delayed action in the matter till about 18 months ago. The present site was then fixed upon, as being central not only to the congregations of Sowa and Bottoms but also convenient for those worshipping at Treen. The building as commenced about 16 months ago, and, by God’s blessing has now, with the exception of some fittings, been brought to completion. With gratitude to God’s good providence, we this day record that no accident to life or limb has occurred during its erection, and we fervently pray that the spiritual blessing and presence of our Heavenly Father may this day descend and evermore abide upon this house, so that it may be the spiritual birthplace of many hundred. The cost of such a chapel has, of course, been considerable. It will, altogether, somewhat exceed £600. Towards this sum there has been promised, in contributions and teamwork, £325 8s 9½d. Of this there has been actually received £287 2s 9½d, including £20, the worth of the site, and £54 8s, the teamwork. The total expenditure to this time has been £312 0s 1d. While our financial circumstances thus oblige us to solicit the continued generosity of our friends through the opening services, we would gratefully acknowledge the liberality already shown by them. The subscriptions promised or received, have been – sums of £10 and upwards, seven subscribers, £115; five pounds, twelve subscribers, £60: one pound, and less than five, thirty-eight subscribers, £80 0s 9½d. with smaller sums. I feel that I should omit a part of my duty, as secretary to the Chapel Building Committee, did I not acknowledge the zeal and well-directed energy of Mr. Hodge, form the beginning even until now; and I am sure that the subscribers will unanimously agree with me that that gentleman, besides being the greatest subscriber, has also been in labours more abundant. – G. F. Gasson, Sec.

1871: Chapel lease acquired. (SWChurches)

Part of St Just Wesleyan Circuit. (SWChurches)

1884: Land next to chapel was bought to build a Sunday school.

1894: Trust renewed.

1895: Chapel extended by 20 feet. (Methodism in West Penwith – A Heritage at Risk)

1900: Chapel keeper’s house built.

1901: Pipe organ replaced the harmonium.

1910: St Leven Wesleyan Band of Hope: “… marched to Porthcurno headed by Trewellard Band. Returning to the school they were regaled with tea and buns… various games were indulged in…” (9 June 1910 – The Cornish Telegraph)

1932: The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and the United Methodist Church amalgamated to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

1932: Became St Levan Methodist Church. (SWChurches)

Part of St Just Methodist Circuit.

1968: Sketches, proposed commemorative tablet, St Levan Methodist Church. Sketches for proposed tablet commemorating donation of carpeting and pulpit fall by Nora Trinian and family in chapel’s centenary year. [Found in minute book, reference MRSJ/652]. (Kresen Kernow MRSJ/671)

St Levan (Little Trethewey) Chapel (part of a group listed Grade II). The congregation being unable to maintain the latter they voted before closure in favour of partial demolition and the site’s preservation as a monument to what had gone before, and a place of remembrance for the community. (Methodism in West Penwith – A Heritage at Risk)

From July 2007: Services held in the schoolroom and the chapel no longer used as a place of worship.

Closed 2013: A note on the disposal of St Levan Chapel (Little Trethewey), St Levan. (Closed 2013) Chapel, Schoolroom and Graveyard. Listed Grade II* / Grade II (“At Risk”) Membership (with Treen) on closure 7. A small congregation of less than a dozen was responsible for group of buildings comprising chapel (Grade II*) within a Grade II group comprising Sunday School, Trap House and walled graveyard surrounding the chapel on three sides, along with an adjacent caretaker’s cottage. It was also responsible for Treen Chapel. The Chapel had not been used since mid-2007 and worship was held either in the adjacent schoolroom or, once a month, at Treen. The chapel was deteriorating badly with structural cracks evident and a large section of plaster fallen from one side where a down pipe had become unfixed. The windows were boarded up, and there is a hole in the ceiling. A previous minister and the then congregation, with support from the then St Just Circuit sought a way forward for this large building serving a scattered parish of less than 500 souls. Thousands of pounds were expended on architect’s fees and a number of reports prepared, while attempts were made to find greater community use for the chapel. These efforts were unsuccessful, despite input from some local people not connected with the church. In the schoolroom, a Farmers’ Market was run for a time but ceased through want of sufficient support, and a short mat bowls club, who had paid several thousand pounds to have the floor of the schoolroom upgraded for their use, also ceased to operate for similar reasons. A cinema club also ran until closure. The decision to declare “Purpose Fulfilled” for St Levan and Treen Methodist Church and the consequent closure of their church buildings was taken in the Spring of 2013 and, faced with potential repair bills of over £300,000, St Levan members decided after much consideration that the best course would be to seek demolition of the chapel and the erection of a suitable memorial to what was before. The difficulty for the congregation of this decision will be appreciated when it is known that for most of them this is a place where many important rites of passage for their families occurred over generations of worship and on a site where many of their relatives are buried. The West Penwith Circuit, which inherited responsibility for the buildings from the local church, made extensive efforts to find a use or a purchaser for the group as a whole. The Cornwall Buildings Preservation Group and the Historic Chapels Trust had initially expressed an interest in the chapel group but this came to nothing. In the end, and in line with charitable governance responsibilities the Circuit, on the receipt of and in line with surveyor’s advice, sold the properties separately. The Circuit retains its managing Trustees role as regards the graveyard as well as the plot of land across the road used as a car park and village green, and which is the site of a war memorial. Negotiations are in hand with the Parish Council regarding these sites. Due to the poor condition of the roof and gable, the Circuit had been forced to restrict access to the graveyard. A fence was erected around the graveyard and chapel. Thanks to an English Heritage (now Historic England) Grant towards the cost the Circuit put a temporary roof on the chapel to preserve the structure as best it could. The graveyard was reopened prior to the sale of the chapel. The story of the disposal of this chapel and its ancillary buildings provides a snapshot of the burdens carried by Managing Trustees with regard to listed chapels especially. Built for a specific purpose, they are difficult to adapt for other uses even were such adaptations easily countenanced by the heritage bodies which have a say in such things. In the end, despite all the efforts of church and circuit, the group was broken up and the buildings sold. Others will follow. (Methodism in West Penwith – A Heritage at Risk)

Chapel and schoolroom sold.

The Chapel is a Grade 2 Listed building.