Mapping Methodism – Falmouth Porhan Street Wesleyan Chapel

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall. This profile of Falmouth Porhan Street Wesleyan Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.

 

Porhan Hill (1880) became Porhan Street (1907) and was finally incorporated into an extension of New Street, running north west of King Charles Anglican Church.

The original Porhan Street ran north west of the King Charles Anglican Church.

Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway, the Scottish Library side-by-side maps nor old-maps.co.uk indicate a location or include any information for this chapel.

2 September 1755. “Our own room” at Falmouth, was situated on Smithick Hill. The society afterwards removed to a building in Porhan St., and in I79I the foundations of a new chapel on the Moor were laid, the predecessor, on the same site, of the present structure – This is Killigrew Street. (Wesley Historical society: https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/04-7.pdf)

Circa 1787: The first meeting house was in Porhan Hill but the location is unknown.

17 August 1789: “In the afternoon, Wesley drove from Truro to Falmouth but “could not pass the common road,” owing, probably, to the construction of the new turnpike road, which was then in progress. He preached in the evening ”on the smooth top of the hill.” This is generally supposed to be near the site of the present Pike’s Hill Chapel. (Wesley Historical society: https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/04-7.pdf)

“Previous to the building of this house [Killigrew Street Chapel built 1791] the Methodists had a chapel in Porhan Street; and about 40 years ago, they assembled for worship in a small house on Porhan Hill [The 1787 chapel].” (A History & Description of the Town and Harbour of Falmouth, 1827 By R. Thomas: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XC5RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=porhan+street+wesleyan&source=bl&ots=Uwh61R0UeP&sig=ACfU3U1fNKk-USxRX3gpes8b4UUO_VIyOA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJlIyPg7DwAhU0aRUIHYOfB9oQ6AEwEXoECBUQAw#v=onepage&q=porhan%20street%20wesleyan&f=false)

1829: Wesleyan Chapel in Porhan Street (later New Street) built. (Miss Susan Gay’s Falmouth chronology) This must be a second chapel in Porhan Street which may indicate a wish to continue meeting in a Porhan Wesleyan Chapel or even a divergence from the mainstream Wesleyan Society at Killigrew Street.

The locations and closure dates of the 1755 “room” in Smithick Hill, or the 1787 and 1829 chapels in Porhan Street, have not been found.