Description

HELSTON

SW6225 FORE STREET, Porthleven
631-1/6/255 (South East side)
22/05/90 Methodist Church and forecourt wall,
railings and gateway
(Formerly Listed as:
FORE STREET
Methodist Church, including front
area, wall, railings and gateway)

GV II*

Nonconformist chapel. 1883 datestone. Slatestone rubble with
granite dressings including plinth, strings, kneelers and
copings; asbestos slate roof with some courses of fishscale
slate resembling features of original dry Delabole slate roof.
Rectangular aisleless plan with gallery on 4 sides; pair of
entrances and staircases at ritual west end; organ loft
projection at ritual east end. Gothic Revival style.
Tall single-storey elevations with side windows shared by
galleries. NW entrance front is 3 bays with wider central bay
flanked by weathered buttresses surmounted by open bellcotes
with pinnacles; end buttresses to octagonal pseudo bellcotes
with pinnacles and finials. Central bay has gable ventilator
over large 5-light traceried window with pointed lights and
central rose; coloured leaded glass; sill string.
Ground floor has pair of gabled doorways flanking a central
buttress; stepped trefoil-headed overlights and original
panelled doors. Side walls are 4:1 bays with stair bays
flanked by pinnacled buttresses; all bay with paired transomed
lancets with round tracery; similar end buttresses.
INTERIOR: large auditorium with oval between gallery with
panelled front carried on slender iron columns;
trefoil-on-section barrel ceiling with heavy moulded cornice
and visible steel tie rods. Fittings: original pitch pine pews
except for small number removed at the front; tiered pews to
gallery; balustraded rostrum and communion rail in front;
organ with round-arched panels in round-arched apse.
Subsidiary features: forecourt has low slatestone walls with
granite coping surmounted by ornate cast-iron railings between
gabled granite piers including central gate piers with arched
panels, overthrow and pair of cast-iron gates.
HISTORY: this large Wesleyan chapel was built at a cost of
»3,500, including the site and the chapel-keeper's house (qv).
(Kelly's Directory of Devonshire and Cornwall: 1902-1902:
273).

Listing NGR: SW6296425923

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532921

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)