23 October 2024

Mapping Methodism – Newquay East Street Wesleyan Chapel

Mapping Methodism0 Comments

Map: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=10.4&lat=52.44811&lon=-3.07812&layers=6&right=ESRIWorld

This profile of Newquay East Street Wesleyan Chapel has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.

(Jo Lewis

Rear view (Jo Lewis)

Built in 1904 on the south side of the street, in the heart of Newquay, to provide a large, impressive new site.

An attached hall also opened.

The congregation moved to here from Chapel Hill (Wesley Hill) Chapel.

Heritage Gateway: Large Wesleyan Methodist chapel and attached hall by Bell, Withers and Meredith. Dressed granite brought-to-course;dry slate roofs. Late Gothic style with Arts and Crafts influence. Chapel front has 2-storey central buttressed gable end flanked by single-storey hipped porch on the left and 3-stage embattled tower on the right. A large central 5-light traceried window is echoed by a 4-light window in the principal gable end of the hall set back on the right. A confident design matching the ambition of a rapidly expanding seaside town during this time.
Methodist church with attached church hall. 1904, by Bell, Withers and Meredith. Front in random granite rubble with granite dressings. Rear in rock-faced elvan stone rubble with granite dressings. Slate roofs, partly bitumenised, with gable ends with raised coped verges. Plan: Auditorium with gable end to front and ritual east to rear. Porch to front left and tower to front right. The church hall is attached by a corridor to rear right. Gothic style. Exterior: Front gable end is 2-storey, with two 2-light windows in the basement. Upper level has 5-light window with 2 king mullions and 4-centred arch with hood mould. Weathered pilasters and breather above, with raised coped verges to the gable. Porch with hipped roof to left with double half-glazed doors with segmental arch with hood mould. 3 stage tower to right with set-back buttresses and embattled parapet; double doors to front with segmental arches, hood moulds and louvres. At the right side of the auditorium, two 2-light windows with segmental arches, buttresses; flat-roofed dormers with 3-light windows. The corridor to right attaches the church to the church hall; this has double doors with segmental arch, buttresses and 2-light window to right and left. The church hall is 2-storey on basement, with a block set forward to right as the porch. 2 mullion and transom windows at ground floor, with 4-light window with segmental arch and hood mould above. The porch block has lower ground floor entrance with double doors with segmental arch. At the rear, the main gable end has 5-light window with 2 king mullions and 4-centred arch with continous hood mould; pilasters with chamfered granite tops are continuos with the raised coped verges of the gable. Lean-to to right with door and window. Corridor to left with double doors and 7-light mullion and transom window. The gable end of the church hall is to left, with large 5-light window with segmental arch and hood mould, breather above, and similar pilasters rising to the coped verge of the gable. Lean-to to left with 9-pane light. 2 flat-roofed dormers along the inner side of the church hall. Interior: Not inspected. [Listed building description: Newquay, East Street (south side), Wesleyan Methodist Church and attached church hall, SW 8061-8161 16/132, 12/06/1988, Grade II]. https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO32974&resourceID=1020

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

1932: Became Newquay Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.

Following the conclusion of the Second World War, congregation numbers gradually fell off and this decline in numbers has continued.

2009: The congregation moved to Claremont Methodist Chapel with the intention that the remaining Methodist congregations in Newquay (Newquay Claremont and Mountjoy) would merge and move to Nansledon.

The building was sold to provide funds for a new purpose-built hub in the new town of Nansledan.

Currently they have bought a small building called The Hub at Nansledan.

The East Street property was sold to Elim and is still active as an Evangelical Church complex.