Mapping Methodism – Stithians Penmennor United Methodist Free Church

Stithians, also known as St Stythians, is a village in the middle of the triangle bounded by Redruth, Helston and Falmouth. Hendra is an area in Stithians. This profile of Penmennor United Methodist Free Church has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.

 

Penmennor United Methodist Free Church is in Hendra Road, Stithians.

Methodist chapel. Datestone 1865. Faced granite entrance front with rock-faced granite ashlar to basement, plinth and rusticated granite dressings, otherwise granite rubble. Dry Delabole slate roof with pedimented gable to front. Plan: Rectangular aisle-less plan with canted vestry and organ loft projecting from the middle of the rear. Entrance hall and pair of gallery stairs at the front, gallery on 4 sides. Schoolroom in basement. Circa 1900 small chapel built over former trap house and stable at right. Exterior: 2 storey elevations over basement as plinth. Symmetrical 3 window north (ritual west) entrance front with triangular pediment with name and date plaques. Wide elliptically-arched rusticated central doorway with original pair of 4-panel doors and elliptical fanlight. Wide flight of granite steps in front of doorway complete with original iron balustrades. Segmental arches over ground floor window, round arches to first floor (gallery) windows. Rusticated quoins, jambstones and voussiors, mid floor string and moulded pediment. Original windows throughout: fixed 9-pane lights to ground floor of front; hornless sashes with fanlight heads to first floor of front and 12-pane horned sashes to sides and rear. Interior: Complete interior with gallery on 4 sides. The central ground floor pews and the gallery pews are the original box pews. The cantelivered front of the gallery is carried on shaped brackets over Tuscan columns. Rostrum has bowed front. There are moulded ceiling cornices and an ornate domed central rose. The schoolroom also has an original rostrum and the rooms under the organ loft (a small meeting room and vestry are also unaltered. Listing NGR: SW7241537057 (Historic England)

United Free Methodist chapel with integral schoolroom. Built of dressed granite and granite rubble; slate roof. Pedimented front: original paired doors within pedimented porch; mid-floor string course and original sash windows (also to other elevations). Interior has full gallery and original grained box pews, good ceiling rose. One of only 3 surviving larger chapels in Cornwall where the original arrangement with free seating survives at the sides (now with later pews) on the ground floor. Original fittings also in basement schoolroom. Good forecourt walls and gate-piers. Good complete and unaltered example and the subject of a recent (2001) repair programme. Listed in Stell (b1). (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway)

Penmennor United Methodist Free Church has an integral schoolroom.

(Photo: Jo Lewis)

(Photo: Barry West)

1865: Penmennor United Methodist Free Church opened. (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway / SWChurches)

1865: Penmennor United Methodist Free Church opened when the congregation split from the Wesleyan Church at Hendra.

1878: Pipe Organ installed, built by Hele & Co Plymouth,

1898: “Stithians. The harvest festival of the U.M.F.C. Stithians, will be held Sunday next.” (Cornubian and Redruth Times – Friday 07 October 1898)

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

1907: Became Penmennor United Methodist Church. (SWChurches)

1910: “Stithians United Methodist Band of Hope tea treat was held on Saturday. A procession was formed, and headed by St. Agnes Band, paraded the village to Foundry and back to a field kindly lent by Mr. W. H. Gluyas, where the children were regaled with tea and cake…” (Cornubian and Redruth Times – Thursday 23 June 1910)

1922: Stithians United Methodist School tea treat. (Cornubian and Redruth Times – Thursday 27 July 1922)

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

1932: Became Penmennor Methodist Church. (SWChurches)

Circa 1960: Elevations, chapel and Sunday School, Penmennor Methodist Church, Stithians. Shows west, north, south and east elevations; not dated, but c1960. [Purpose unclear]. (Kresen Kernow MRFG/89)

1991: Methodism in Stithians, history of Hendra and Penmennor Methodist Societies, Stithians. Printed booklet on the history of the history of the Hendra and Penmennor Societies, published for the 125th Anniversary of Penmennor Chapel in 1991 by Joyce Green and Tony Langford. (Kresen Kernow MRR/1998)

It is grade 2 listed.