Trewellard is a small village on the north coast road between St Just and St Ive. It is seven miles from Land’s End and seven miles from Penzance. Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell have compiled this profile of Trewellard Wesleyan Chapel.
1746: Charles Wesley visited Trewellard twice in 1746.
6th September 1746: John Wesley visited Trewellard. “I rode to Trewellard, in the parish of St Just. I found no society in Cornwall so lively as this; yet a few of them I was obliged to reprove for negligence in meeting, which is always the forerunner of great evils”.
1815 Chapel
1815: Chapel founded. (Methodism in West Penwith – A Heritage at Risk / West Penwith Resources)
20th February 1832: A revival at Trewellard. The circuit minister recorded, “On the following Tuesday, February 20th, at Trewellard, a place on the coast belonging to the St Just Society, hundreds of people stood in the open air, not being able to get into the chapel. Nearly forty persons were that night pricked in their hearts, and about ten found mercy.” Like most other places nobody wanted to go home. https://ukwells.org/wells/trewellard
1833 Chapel
Fairly large nonconformist (Wesleyan) chapel. 1833 datestone, refitted late C19. Granite ashlar front, otherwise granite rubble with granite dressings; concrete tile roof with coped ends, the front end as a triangular pediment. Rectangular aisle-less plan with gallery on 4 sides. 2-storey side elevations; symmetrical 2-window front with round-arched openings. late C19 horned sashes with spoked fanlight heads (also to 1st-floor of side elevations). Wide central doorway with good, spoked fanlight and pair of single-panel doors. INTERIOR retains original panelled and moulded gallery front to 3 sides with canted corners and carried on slender Tuscan columns, also there is a very fine moulded and carved plaster ceiling rose. The late C19 gallery at the ritual east end has turned balusters and panelled piers. The rostrum is of a similar date with lectern broken forward from a turned balustrade and standing on a pair of Tuscan end columns with a round blind arch between. The pitch-pine pews are also late C19 as is the organ and a glazed chancel screen with Gothic detail. The attached vestry and other rooms retain some original features including a moulded chimneypiece with corner blocks and roundels. This is a good example of a galleried chapel within a mining village. Listing NGR: SW3763033763 (Historic England)
A Wesleyan chapel built 1833 with coursed dressed granite to the pedimented front, otherwise it is granite rubble. Simple classical style. Symmetrical front end with round-arched openings: central doorway with concentric spoked fanlight and two first-floor windows. three-bay side elevations with round-arched windows to first floor only. Good interior with original horseshoe (with canted corners) gallery and later seating; good balustraded rostrum with corner columns. Vestry has original moulded chimneypiece with roundels in corner blocks. Listed in Stell (b1). (Heritage Gateway)
1833: Build date. (Heritage Gateway / SWChurches)
Cost £600.
The Wesleyan Methodist chapel lately erected at Trewellard was opened for divine service on Sunday and Monday last. The pews in the chapel, which are nearly all let, will seat about 200 persons, and the free sittings will accommodate 150 more. (Cornwall Gazette 9th November 1833)
1851: John Rodda was the preacher. (West Penwith Resources)
1861: Chapel extended increasing the length by 20ft.
1873: Survey reports 450 seats. (West Penwith Resources)
1889: Chapel re-opening following renovation. (Cornishman – Thursday 19 September 1889)
1890: Organ installed by Hele & Co of Plymouth at a cost of £150. May have been 1893.
1908: Sunday School build date.
1932: The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and the United Methodist Church amalgamated to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
1932: Became Trewellard Methodist Church.
1940: Seating for 366. (David Easton, Methodist Minister and historian)
27 Jul 1966: Programme, organ re-opening, Trewellard Methodist Church, St Just in Penwith. With list of organists from before 1919-1966; does not show specification of the organ [section torn off]. (Kresen Kernow MRSJ/818)
1978: Complete overhaul of the organ in 1978 came with a bill of £1,491.48, and so Martin Kevern came up with the plan to raise the money with sponsored non-stop organ playing, including first ever non-stop playing of the Methodist hymn book from cover to cover. The organ, which had once been described ‘for its size, it is reputedly one of the best organs in the county,’ was moved to the St Just Miners’ Chapel, where it remains today and is still in use.
25 Apr 1980: Seating plan, St Just Methodist Circuit Rally, Trewellard Methodist Church, St Just in Penwith. Again used for further Circuit rally on 29 April 1993; plan of downstairs and gallery areas showing where members from the various Circuit chapels were seated. (Kresen Kernow MRSJ/819)
Nov 1983: 150th Anniversary booklet, Trewellard Methodist Church, St Just in Penwith. Historical notes with photographs, 1833-1983. By E C (Cora) Collins. 35 pages. (Kresen Kernow MRSJ/774)
1983: Closure date. (SWChurches) Probably an error.
2003: Closure date. (David Easton, Methodist Minister and historian)
2005: Closure date.
It is a grade 2 listed building.
Planning permission granted for conversion.
Conversion to a home: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/gallery/cold-reality-turning-derelict-cornish-3663578