Lanner is a village situated on the A393 about 2 miles (3.2 km) south-east of Redruth. This profile of Lanner Wesleyan Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.
Lanner Wesley had been on the circuit plan long before the building took place in 1828, so a meeting place or Chapel of some description definitely existed nearby before this date. https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75971_church-micro-10946-lanner-methodist-church?guid=015f5546-74c3-4026-bcf6-6bf664831f22
1828 Chapel
16 Jul 1828: Assignment of lease, Lanner Wesleyan Chapel, Gwennap. Parties: 1) James Francis 2) Simon Davey and others, trustees. Part of Bell’s tenement, Gwennap, with chapel for use of preachers of doctrines in accordance with Wesley’s notes. Term: 99 years. Kresen Kernow MRR/1463)
In 1828 a Wesleyan chapel was built in Lanner village. (SWChurches)
1828: Build date. (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway / SWChurches)
1844: In the 1820s and 1830s Lanner grew in population, largely through the workforce needed for the rapidly expanding Tresavean mine, served by its own railway line and in 1844 the 1828 chapel was pulled down and a new building constructed on more or less the same site. (David Thomas, Kresen Kernow)
1844 Chapel
Large Wesleyan chapel. Remodelled 1844 and refronted and refitted 1903 (b1). Dressed granite front, otherwise rubble with granite dressings; dry slate roof behind coped gable parapet. Original classical style building refronted in Perpendicular style Gothic. 3-bay front has large central 5-light traceried window flanked by smaller 3-light traceried windows with buttresses between. Ground floor has full-width tripartite porch with elliptical arches. 4-bay side walls retain rare original 16-pane sash windows. Interior has original horse-shoe gallery with panelled front, good ceiling rose, proscenium arch to original communion apse and pedimented doorways. Later fittings include Gothic style rostrum with bowed centre and pitch-pine pews. Part of a very good group. (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway)
As Tresavean mine expanded and the population in the area grew, the chapel was replaced by a new building, on the same site, opening in 1844. (SWChurches)
1844: Chapel re-built or re-modelled. (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway)
All the carpentry work was done by Henry Strick of Trevarth – Carpenter and Undertaker. He made and glazed the windows for a sum of £36 and was paid a further £97 for fixing the inside gallery. Various members of the congregation helped in the building of the Chapel, raising and carrying moorstone from Carn Marth and conveying sand by cart from St Agnes. https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75971_church-micro-10946-lanner-methodist-church?guid=015f5546-74c3-4026-bcf6-6bf664831f22
It had an American organ. (SWChurches)
1872-1889: Trust minutes, Lanner Wesleyan Chapel, Gwennap. (Kresen Kernow MRR/3097)
1902: The schoolroom was built. (SWChurches)
12 Jan 1903: Permission for alterations, Lanner Wesleyan Chapel, Gwennap. Form of application to Wesleyan Chapel Committee for permission to alter chapel, covering provision of new front, repair and decoration. (Kresen Kernow MRR/1649)
30 Jan 1903: Receipt for fees, Lanner Wesleyan Chapel, Gwennap. Receipt from Wesleyan Chapel Committee for fees for registration of chapel deed. (Kresen Kernow MRR/1650)
15 May 1903: Covering letter, grant for Sunday School, Lanner Wesleyan Chapel, Gwennap. Letter from Wesleyan Chapel Committee accompanying cheque for £90, a grant from the Twentieth Century Fund towards costs for the erection of Sunday School. (Kresen Kernow MRR/1651)
A pre-1903 postcard image by an unknown photographer showing the front of the chapel as it existed between 1844 and 1903. It was a plain structure. A note on the back of the card says that the two men shown are Mr Morgan and Johnny Chapel. (Courtesy David Thomas, Kresen Kernow)
1903: Chapel re-fronted and re-fitted. (Cornwall Council Heritage Gateway)
The 1844 chapel received a new Gothic style frontage in 1903. (David Thomas, Kresen Kernow)
The front of the chapel was subsequently altered, removing the central doors, and installing a pipe organ. (SWChurches)
Taken around 1904-1905 by Illogan postcard photographer E A Bragg, it shows the facade after the 1903 renovations. The central doorway has vanished and two porches have been added to the frontage, while all the windows have completely changed. Lanner Wesley is an excellent example of how chapels can radically alter over a period of time and seeking evidence through photographic records is a must for the historian. (Courtesy David Thomas, Kresen Kernow)
While Bragg was at Lanner he took this view looking roughly southwest showing both Lanner Wesleyan Chapel and the new 1902 Sunday School. Some of the village children gather on the hedge and outside both the chapel and Sunday School to be included in the photograph. (Courtesy David Thomas of Kresen Kernow)
6 Oct 1905: Covering letter, grant for chapel, Lanner Wesleyan Chapel, Gwennap. Letter from Wesleyan Chapel Committee accompanying cheque for £80, a grant from the Twentieth Century Fund towards costs for alterations to chapel. (Kresen Kernow MRR/1652)
1924: Organ overhauled. (SWChurches)
The chapel’s surviving baptism registers commence in 1840 while between at least the period 1847 to 1927 it had a Sunday School burial club, to assist with the cost of funerals, if anyone died young within the Sunday School fellowship. Regular contributions were made by members. Today this chapel remains open as Lanner Methodist Church. (David Thomas, Kresen Kernow)
1932: The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and the United Methodist Church amalgamated to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
This remarkable postcard view of the chapel interior decorated for the Harvest Festival celebration, is probably from sometime in the 1930s. The fine stencilling work on the organ pipes is clearly visible while the two doorways on either side of the organ possess very ornate pediments over them. What is however particularly significant is that the upper portions of the pulpit or rostrum have had added to them some special fitted decorative coloured panels for the harvest decorations. No effort has been spared to make the chapel beautiful for this special day in the life of the Society. I have seen a similar panel in nearby Carharrack Wesley chapel. The late Mr Donald Bennetts of Troon, who died in January 2014, aged 94, served as organist for a period of 60 years at this chapel, a remarkable achievement. (David Thomas of Kreen Kernow)
1934: All six existing or former Lanner area chapel congregations: Wesleyan Chapel, Primitive Methodist Chapel, Bible Christian Chapel, Carn Marth / Sandy Lane Primitive Chapel, South Downs Chapel and Trevarth Wesleyan Chapel, amalgamated at Lanner (Wesleyan) Chapel to become Lanner Methodist Chapel. https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC75971_church-micro-10946-lanner-methodist-church?guid=015f5546-74c3-4026-bcf6-6bf664831f22
1923-1936: Minutes, Lanner Wesleyan Chapel, Gwennap. Leaders’ and society meetings. (Kresen Kernow MRR/1640)
1947: Organ re-built. (SWChurches)
1947: Lanner Wesley Sunday School: “… scholars and teachers, with Messrs. W. H. Langford and H. J. Keast (superintendents) paraded the village, headed by Redruth Silver Band, and the traditional serpentine walk took place in the Square. Miss A. Langford, general secretary, supervised the day …” (31 July 1947 – Cornishman)
1948: “LANNER WESLEY CELEBRATES. Ready Response to Appeal With the opening of the rebuilt organ and the re-opening of Lanner Wesley Church after renovation, a new era was begun in the long history of this church. At a cost exceeding £800, all of which has been raised, the two manual pipe organ which has served the church for half a century has been entirely dismantled and re-constructed along modern lines, principal improvements being the substitution of pneumatic action for the mechanical method, a new console of dark polished oak with ivory keyboards, and the provision of an electric blower. The church itself, which has been closed for several weeks during the constructional period, has been thoroughly cleaned and re-decorated by the voluntary labour of its members, and a new stairway constructed to the choir vestries, work which was carried out as a gift from Mr. W. H. Langford, a trustee and the treasurer of the organ and renovation fund. The free services rendered in the two schemes are estimated to have saved the church an outlay of £100 in labour costs. Tributes to the way which the people had responded to the appeal were paid by Rev. F. A. White, pastor, who took part in the dedication of the rebuilt organ together with Rev. Cyrus Burge, supt., minister, on Saturday evening…” (Cornishman – Thursday 09 September 1948)
1977: The central doors were reinstated and a new vestibule constructed. (SWChurches)
1978: Lanner (Wesley) Methodist Church celebrates 150 years of Christian worship 1828 – 1978. (Kresen Kernow 287.142376 PF)
Lanner Methodist Chapel with its 1977 vestibule (Photo: Jo Lewis)
Many other documents and plans relating to this chapel are held by Kresen Kernow.