Mevagissey is a village, fishing port and civil parish in Cornwall approximately five miles south of St Austell. This profile of Mevagissey Bible Christian Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.
1826 Chapel
24 Jun 1818: Lease, River Street Bible Christian Chapel, Mevagissey. Parties: 1) Marquis of Buckingham 2) Philip Ball, merchant, of Mevagissey. Garden (130×60 feet) bounded on south by mill leat, for building chapel. Term: 99 years or three lives (Lives: Philip, aged 13, John aged 12 and Charlotte, 7, children of Philip Ball). Consideration: spending £140 on building. Rent: 5 shillings. Heriot: 5 shillings. (Kresen Kernow MRMRC/160)
20 Sep 1826: Trust deed, River Street Bible Christian Chapel, Mevagissey. Parties: 1) Thomas Stark, cooper, of Mevagissey. 2) Chapel trustees. Chapel and plot, former garden. Preachers to be appointed by William O’Bryan during his life and thereafter by Arminian Bible Christian conference. Consideration: 5 shillings. (Kresen Kernow MRMRC/161)
1826: Build date.
2 Apr 1838: Lease for a year, River Street Bible Christian Chapel, Mevagissey. Parties: 1) Thomas Stark, cooper, of Mevagissey. 2) Chapel trustees. Chapel and former garden. (Kresen Kernow MRMRC/162)
1856: Other sources state that it was re-built.
1880: Chapel renovation. (Cornishman – Thursday 29 July 1880)
1881 & 1888: Maps show it on the same side of the road as the Congregational chapel.
1888: Chapel restored.
Seating for 300.
1894: Chapel completely destroyed by fire.
1896 Chapel
(Photo: Barry West)
(Photo: Jo Lewis)
(Photo: Barry West)
Bible Christian chapel and attached Sunday school and vestry which is narrower at rear. Local slatestone rubble with contrasting white granite dressings; dry slate roofs with crested and finialed clay ridge tiles. Simple Gothic style with lancets and finialed buttresses. Two-storey, three-bay front gable end with trefoil over triple stepped lancet over pair of doorways. Lancet over lancet to each flanking bay and 4 bays of lancets to each side elevation. Part of an attractive group. (Heritage Gateway)
1895: Foundation stones of new chapel laid. (Royal Cornwall Gazette – Thursday 04 July 1895)
1896: Build date.
Built as a Bible Christian Chapel. (SWChurches)
1896: Built in the gothic style by Squire Tremayne of Heligan. Mevagissey was one of the first towns in the country to have its own electricity generating station and this building was one of the first in the country to have electricity.
Circa 1900: Postcard, parade, Bible Christian Chapel, Mevagissey. Black and white photograph of a large crowd of people on a parade. A large banner is carried aloft. Group not identified but banner is the same as shown in a picture of Bible Christians in ‘A History of Mevagissey Methodists 1752-1980.’ by Robert C Murrish. Probably part of feast day celebrations. Photographer: not identified. Not dated. (Kresen Kernow MRA/1711)
1907: The Methodist New Connexion, Bible Christians and United Methodist Free Churches amalgamated to become the United Methodist Church.
1907: Became River Street United Methodist Church. (SWChurches)
1907: After the union the United Methodist Church had two chapels in the town in two different Circuits, with this one being in the Mevagissey Circuit.
1912: Mevagissey Chapel Fire. A fire broke out in Mevagissey United Methodist Chapel Tuesday, through the fusing of wire. The outbreak was extinguished by pails of water, but about £30 damage was done. The chapel was erected in 1895. the former chapel having been burned down in the previous year. (West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser – Thursday 16 May 1912)
1932: The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and the United Methodist Church amalgamated to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
1932: Became River Street Methodist Church. (SWChurches)
1940: Seating for 380. (David Easton, Methodist Minister and historian)
1992: Closure date. This chapel closed and the congregation moved to St Andrews Church.
1992: Closure. (David Easton, Methodist Minister and historian)
1994: Records held to this date.
2015: For sale.
Converted to apartments of which one became a holiday let.
1883 / 1992 St Andrews Church
Mevagissey Congregational Church is one of the largest Trevail designed, seating 450. The Memorial stones were laid on 4th August 1881 and the building opened 25th January 1883. After amalgamating with the Bible Christian Church, the building became known as St Andrew’s Church. Coursed slatestone and contrasting white granite dressings; dry slate roofs with crested and pierced clay ridge tiles. Gothic style with trefoil-headed lights. Three-bay buttressed front has taller central gabled bay with three-light traceried window over pair of doorways within arch; stone stack over right-hand buttress; flanking bays as transepts with coped gables to returns. An imposing building in a good group. In 1996 the old Sunday schoolrooms to the rear were pulled down and the church altered to make additional meeting rooms. The upper floor remained a chapel, with the woodwork, windows and organ wonderfully restored, housing for a lift and extra stairs were added and the ground floor divided to meet modern requirements. (Heritage Gateway)
A Congregational Chapel built in 1882 on the site of a previous building (Dated 1776) which belonged to the Mevagissey Independents, one of the older dissenting sects is Britain, which was established in 1626 (1625-1946).
The Congregational chapel, now St Andrews Methodist Church (Photo: Jo Lewis)
(Photo: Alan Murton)
(Photo: Barry West)
Former Congregational School, now entrance to St Andrews Methodist Church (Photo: Jo Lewis)
(Photo: Barry West)
(Photo: Barry West)
1992: The Bible Christian and United Reformed Churches in Mevagissey came together to form a Local Ecumenical Partnership – St Andrew’s United Church.
The building was extensively reordered to provide worship space upstairs in the old gallery of the chapel, and a church hall downstairs. The entrance is through the other end of the building in an adjoined structure which was the Congregational School, built in 1873.
Converted to Community Centre. (David Easton, Methodist Minister and historian)
There are a considerable number of documents held by Kresen Kersen Kernow about this building when it was a Congregational Chapel.