Former Falmouth Central Methodist Church, Falmouth, Cornwall

Summary

Former Wesleyan Methodist chapel, 1874-1876 by James Hicks, with alterations in 1888 and 1894; exterior altered and interior rebuilt in 1956 by Geoffrey B Drewitt, following bomb damage.

Description

Former Wesleyan Methodist chapel, 1874-1876 by James Hicks, with alterations in 1888 and 1894; exterior altered and interior rebuilt in 1956 by Geoffrey B Drewitt, following bomb damage.

MATERIALS: squared killas slate stone brought to courses on the principal elevation, with Bath stone and granite dressings; other elevations are of random killas with red brick dressings and granite quoins. Delabole slate roof.

PLAN: rectangular in plan with large halls on the first and second floors, and staircases in projecting wings to the front.

EXTERIOR: designed in a free Italian Romanesque style, the church has a two-storey principal front (west) of three bays with a taller central entrance bay with a gable with a Lombard frieze. At the ground floor the central bay has a mid-C20 hipped porch with a tripartite doorway with slender columns and responds, fitted with glazed, panelled doors and fanlights. Above this is a very large central window with a spoked fanlight head with round lights between the spokes; three lights below divided by pilasters with mullions and transoms to the left and right windows; and a further three lights below again with mullions – the window is framed by two large pilaster columns and the first floor of the bay is framed by tapering pilasters all with Corinthian capitals linked to an impost band. The flanking bays have paired mullion and transom windows with recessed horseshoe-arch heads on the ground floor, with two-light arched-head mullion and transom windows above with round tracery to the head within a round arch, and a dentilled cornice and flat parapet above - the bays are framed by pilasters on the first floor rising to an impost band with indented roundels. Along the ground floor of the front elevation are several commemorative stones, from left to right: foundation stone and memorial stone laid 30 July 1874; two memorial stones laid 22 November 1887; and a stone marking the bombing of the chapel and its restoration and reopening in March 1956. The front elevation return on the south side has a single identical window to the first floor; on the north side it is blind and partially obscured by the neighbouring building. The north and south elevations are set back; each is of four bays of paired arch-head windows with red brick dressings and granite cills. The pitched roof has two conical ventilators and is hipped at the east end; a further pitched roof covers an additional lower bay at the rear (east) of the building, with a C20 red-brick stack. The east elevation is blind, being built almost against the cliff-face behind.

INTERIOR: the interior was entirely rebuilt in the 1950s. The church is entered into a three-bay rectangular entrance hall with arched openings to staircases to the north and south, and to the east two part-glazed double-doors with kickplates and some brass door-furniture surviving. Each has a two-light transom above and there is a three-light internal window to their right. There is a pull-down screen to this southern bay. The ceiling has boxed steel beams and the floor is laid with linoleum. The left-hand double door leads to a chapel with several memorial plaques including to Reverend Walter Pascoe Johns (who oversaw the building of the C19 chapel; d 1886) and Reverend M Wyche Mountford (d 1915). The right-hand double-door leads to a corridor with a linoleum floor, rows of brass coat-hooks, and borrowed lights to the rooms either side. To the south, double doors (with a stylish brass door-handle) below a two-light transom lead to a three-bay room with jib-piers to the eastern bay. At the north-east corner are four fitted cupboards with flush doors and bronze door furniture. Further along the corridor is another room on the north side with no features of note. Two steps at the end of the corridor lead to ancillary rooms at the east end of the building, added in the 1950s. A 1950s lift is located within the southern staircase hall.

Cantilever staircases to the north and south at the front of the building lead to the top floor of the building. They are of concrete construction, with a steel Festival-style geometric balustrade and timber handrails. From the first-floor landings double doors either side lead into a large hall with a contemporary stage at the east end and a linoleum floor covering. Slim steel columns support the boxed steel-joists of the ceiling. At the west end of the hall is a smaller hall, accessed from the northern landing, with a raked ceiling reflecting the level above, and again with a linoleum floor. The former church on the second floor is again accessed through double-doors from each landing. The hall is three bays wide with a central elliptical-arch vaulted bay, and four bays long defined by simple ribs springing from tapered Doric pilasters, and with a deep cornice. At the west end is a raked gallery with pitch-pine pews and linoleum floor coverings. The west window, by John Hall & Sons Ltd, has a central Light of the World flanked by figures from Methodism: John and Charles Wesley; Hugh Bourne and William Clowes, pioneers of Primitive Methodism; William O’Bryan, originator of the Bible Christians (later United Methodists); and Billy Bray, the Cornish evangelist. To the east beyond an elliptical arch springing from pilasters with Corinthian capitals, is a further raked gallery with pews. The rostrum is located in front of the gallery and has simple C20 fittings. Flanking the eastern arch are two war memorial plaques; the Second World War commemoration includes those lost in the bombing on 9 October 1940. An organ is located at the north-east corner of the nave. At the west end of the north and south walls the paired windows contain stained glass; those to the south are memorial windows by Abbott & Co, and those to the north honour and remember sailors (with a representation of a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat) and those who served in the Sunday school.

Windows are paired in each bay on the north and south elevations and have glazing bars and margin lights; the arched upper section is horizontally-hung. The windows on the front elevation are of obscured glass with rectangular leaded lights. In several of the spaces the walls are lined with acoustic panels.

History

In the mid-C18, the Falmouth Methodists were meeting in a room on Porhan Hill, and there was probably also a meeting place off Church Street. John Wesley first visited Falmouth in July 1745 where he was confronted by a mob which he appeased, but when he visited again in August 1789, he found the townspeople much changed. Two years later in 1791, a Wesleyan chapel was built in the centre of Falmouth; it was enlarged in 1814 and later to accommodate a growing congregation, and the site bought by the trustees in 1828. A further Wesleyan chapel was built in 1865 at Pike’s Hill, with a Primitive Methodist chapel at Vernon Place in 1832 and a Bible Christian chapel at Berkeley Vale in 1867 (Grade II).

On 8 September 1873 the trustees of the Falmouth Wesleyan chapel discussed the possibility of replacing the 1791 building, and on 17 November 1873 a Building Committee was established who offered a £10 prize for the best design. Although there was no commitment to accept any design, the Redruth architect James Hicks (1846-1896) was appointed. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 30 July 1874 by Mr DJ Jenkins, a senior borough member, alongside two memorial stones laid by Reverend JE Coulson and William Perry of London. At this point, almost £3,000 had been raised for the construction of the new chapel.

As described in May 1874 in the ‘Architect & Building News’, Hicks’ plans for the new chapel comprised a basement entrance lobby, schoolroom and four classrooms (able to accommodate 600), and a ‘band room’ to the east. On the ground floor the organ and choir were placed above that eastern room, with galleries supported on iron columns around the other three sides at first floor level with a circular end. The orchestra was at the east end beyond the rostrum, marked by an arch with polished red Devonshire marble and Bath stone carved capitals. Hicks considered the building to be a success acoustically, and special means of ventilation were provided for. The front elevation (83 feet wide by 85 feet tall) was constructed of granite and locally-quarried slate stone with Bath stone dressings. Measuring about 120 feet in depth, the chapel had a capacity of 1,400. The contractor was Mr JW Halligey of Falmouth and the cost of the scheme was £5,600. The dedication service took place on 26 May 1876, followed by the first public meeting that evening. The opening of the new Wesleyan chapel was described as the most important event, alongside the opening of the 1791 chapel, to have occurred in connection with Falmouth Wesleyanism, as it was considered to mark the growth and establishment of Wesleyan Methodism in Falmouth, which at first had received fierce opposition. Hicks was called upon several times over the following two decades including in February 1894 when he was commissioned for general renovations to the building. Described in the local press as ‘extensive alterations and repairs’ the chapel reopened in June 1894. The schoolrooms were extended in 1888 and memorial stones laid that November; no further details are available about the works.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Falmouth was considered to be a Category A port. The docks at Falmouth were a logical target for the Luftwaffe; the first air raid was on 5 July 1940 and the raids continued until May 1944 affecting both the docks and the town. The Wesleyan chapel was used as a hostel for troops and on the evening of Wednesday 9 October 1940, an incendiary bomb hit the building and exploded in the ground-floor schoolroom - which was being used as a canteen - and the chapel’s windows were blown out. Three soldiers and two civilians were killed immediately, with a further soldier dying from his wounds the following day, and many injured. Meetings continued in an adjacent building, but the chapel suffered bomb damage again on 13 May 1941.

The shell of the building remained intact, but the building lay derelict for 15 years. It was reopened on 14 March 1956 by Reverend Leslie Weatherhead, President of the Methodist Conference, as the Central Methodist Church. The reconstructed interior had a spacious foyer, minister’s vestry and three small halls on the ground floor; a large assembly hall and small hall on the first floor; and the church on the top floor, seating 600 people. Ancillary spaces were housed to the rear. The halls were named after those who had influenced Methodism (they were also represented in the new large west window) and there was a memorial chapel on the ground floor. The new building was reported as being ‘as modern as the trustees could make it’, with Thermoplastic tiled floors, oil-fired heating and fluorescent strip lighting. A lift and a deaf-aid installation, with sound also relayed from the church to the hall below, and an electronic organ were also installed. The reconstruction cost £44,000, met in part by the War Damage Commission. Salvage from the bombed chapel was apparently also sold by church members to finance the works. The architect for the reconstructed church was Geoffrey B Drewitt of Penzance and the contractor W Trathen of Redruth.

A 1924 organ by Thomas Wadsworth of Huddersfield replaced the electronic organ in 1968. In 1979 the name was changed to Falmouth Methodist Church when Pike’s Hill was closed. The church became part of the Falmouth and Gwennap Circuit in 2008, when the pews were removed to enable more flexibility. The last service at the church was on 16 January 2022.

Reasons for Listing

The former Central Methodist Church in Falmouth, Cornwall is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the retained exterior is a characterful example of the work of James Hicks of Redruth;
* the west elevation makes a strong and strategic contribution to the townscape, and is particularly visible when approaching from the south-west;
* the rebuilt interior utilised the most modern materials available at the time.

Historic interest:

* the rebuilding of the church following its partial destruction during the Second World War is a manifestation of the public determination of the time;
* the rebuilding was also an opportunity to provide facilities to give better accessibility for the congregation;
* it is sited with neighbouring buildings which together form a civic and community hub which reflect the redevelopment of Falmouth from the mid-C19;
* the church sits well within the development of Methodism in Falmouth, and also the wider national historic context.

Group value:

* with nearby listed C19 buildings around the Moor including Falmouth Art Gallery and Library (former Passmore Edwards Free Library), the former town hall and court, and Jacob’s Ladder, all of which are Grade II-listed.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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