Mapping Methodism – Grampound Bible Christian Chapel

Grampound is a village at an ancient crossing point of the River Fal and today is on the A390 road six miles west of St Austell and eight miles east of Truro. This profile of Grampound Bible Christian Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.

 

The Bible Christian Chapel is in Creed Road, Grampound.

Bible Christian chapel with forecourt wall and gate-piers, now converted to house. Local rubble with granite dressings under a dry slate roof with crested clay ridge tiles. Gable oculus and round-arched windows to front; side window openings altered. (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway)

On-line image of 1881 Bible Christian Chapel

Grampound Bible Christian Chapel (Photo: Barry West)

Grampound Bible Christian Chapel (Photo: Barry West)

Grampound Bible Christian Chapel (Photo: Barry West)

Apparently 500 people attended the laying of the foundation stone. (Cornish Methodists and other non-conforming chapels in Cornwall)

1881: Laying the foundation stone. (Cornubian and Redruth Times – Friday 22 April 1881)

1881: Build date. (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway / Plaque)

1881: Bible Christian Chapel built to replace a former thatched chapel on this site.  (The Book of Grampound with Creed)

Apparently there was a competition to see who would build it but we have no details other than the lucky build is said to have come from Tregony. (Cornish Methodists and other non-conforming chapels in Cornwall)

1897: “Grampound Bible Christians. The Bible Christian Chapel at Grampound has been greatly improved. The new orchestra, the new lamps, and the decorations combine to make it one the prettiest little places for many miles around. Il was re-opened last Thursday…” (West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser – Thursday 26 August 1897)

1898: Date given by both SWChurches and Kresen Kernow (see following note)

In 1898 the chapel was registered for the solemnisation of marriages and at the same time was registered for worship. The new 1898 marriage Act of Parliament came into force in that year allowing Chapels to register marriages if required in their own register books, without the Registrar being present. To have a marriage licence however meant that the building had to be an authorised place of religious worship to get that marriage licence, which required it to be registered as a worship venue. The chapel, built some years earlier in 1881, had probably never properly been registered for religious worship at the time of construction. There are many instances amongst our records where chapels were built but not first registered for worship until a good few years later. This case is by no means unique and a worship registration certificate should never be taken as concrete evidence for a building date. (David Thomas of Kresen Kernow)

1898: Certificate of registration, Grampound East United Methodist Church. Certificate of registration as place of religious worship. (Kresen Kernow MRT/701)

1898: Certificate of registration, marriages, Grampound East United Methodist Church. (Kresen Kernow MRT/702)

1900: Bible Christian Chapel heavily in debt. (Royal Cornwall Gazette – Thursday 04 January 1900)

1907: The Methodist New Connexion, Bible Christians and United Methodist Free Churches amalgamated to become the United Methodist Church.

1907: Became Grampound East United Methodist Church. (SWChurches)

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

1932: Became Grampound East Methodist Church. (SWChurches)

Part of Truro Methodist Circuit.

1940: Seating for 130. (David Easton, Methodist Minister and historian)

1982: Closed. (SWChurches / David Easton, Methodist Minister and historian)

1982: Sold. (SWChurches)

1978-1982: Correspondence, sale of chapel, Grampound East Methodist Church. Correspondence relating to closure and sale of chapel. (Kresen Kernow MRT/703)

Circa: 1990: Converted to a private dwelling.