Map:
This profile of Port Isaac Wesleyan Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell
A Port Isaac Wesleyan Society existed in 1748 or possibly earlier with meetings held in the home of Richard Crabb. (Roscarrock Hill Chapel through the Years)
John Wesley visited the village many times between 1747 and 1789. (Roscarrock Hill Chapel through the Years)
The first chapel was built in Middle Street circa 1750. It was rebuilt in 1770 and enlarged in 1784. (Roscarrock Hill Chapel through the Years)
1820: It appears that a new chapel was built around this time as in the booklet, Roscarrock Hill Chapel through the Years, it states that the Wesley Bell hung in the belfry of the “newly built chapel in Middle Street.”
Local history books suggest that the building which still stands in Middle Street is the third Wesleyan chapel to have been built on that site and in the booklet, Roscarrock Hill Chapel through the Years, it states: “The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at the end of Middle Street, The Chapel in the Valley, was built by 1839.”
In 1831, the Port Isaac Methodist Society had 87 members a thriving Sunday school but four years later, in 1835, there was a huge and acrimonious split when some argued that Methodism should remain autocratic as it had been under Wesley and others, the majority, felt it should be more democratic. Those in the latter group, the reformers, joined the Wesleyan Methodist Association. For a while, they occupied the Middle Street Chapel but eventually left taking the bell and candelabra for their new chapel in Roscarrock Hill. (Roscarrock Hill Chapel through the Years)
Port Isaac Wesleyan (Provided by Jim Rourke)
Heritage Gateway: Wesleyan chapel (1885) plus Sunday school (1875).https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO32671&resourceID=1020
1875: Sunday school built – presumably abutting a former chapel.
1885: Chapel built – presumably on the footprint of a former chapel.
1932: The Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist and the United Methodist Church amalgamated to become the Methodist Church of Great Britain.
1932: Became Middle Street Methodist Chapal (Chapel in the Valley).
1940: Seating 220. (Revd David Easton)
Closed: 1974. (Revd David Easton)
Demolished: Dwelling on site.
2024 photo of the 1875 Sunday School (Tony Mansell)
2024 photo of the 1875 Sunday School with the now vacant site of the former chapel. (Tony Mansell)
This memorial stone is located on the gable end of the remaining building – presumably re-located there when the 1885 chapel was demolished. (Tony Mansell)