Description

SX0152
1/459
28.11.50

ST AUSTELL
1584A BODMIN ROAD
CHURCH OF ST JOHN
Methodist Church


II*

Large Wesleyan chapel and attached schoolrooms. 1828, restored and refitted 1892 by Sylvanus Trevail, incorporating late C18 central window and porch from Saunders Hill Mansion, Padstow; Sunday school 1904, probably also by Trevail. MATERIALS: granite ashlar plinth and central pediment over panel, front is otherwise Pentewan stone ashlar, other elevations local rubble with Pentewan stone voussoirs; Sunday school with dressed stone brought to course; dry Delabole slate hipped roofs; cast-iron ogee gutters and cast-iron downpipes to side elevations.
PLAN: large aisle-less plan with apse at E end (originally City Road style), galleries to each side; Sunday school and other rooms adjoining to rear left. EXTERIOR: 2-storey elevations with round arches over flat arches; symmetrical 1:3:1-bay front with side bays broken forward and clasping the corners, original plain ashlar course to parapets on either side of 1892 pediment with buttressed panelled and pedimented piers flanking a wide panel under the main pediment; original moulded parapet cornice. 1892 windows with round-arched lights, the 1st-floor windows with round tracery, all with coloured leaded glass. Central pedimented Ionic distyle porch and pilastered window surround above have festoons to their entablature. Porch has datestone inserted to pediment inscribed: BUILT 1828, RESTORED 1892; pair of panelled doors. 5-bay side elevations have windows of similar design to the front windows. Sunday school has symmetrical 4-window front with pedimented parapet similar to that of the chapel front and round-arched windows similar to those of the chapel but with plain glazing.
INTERIOR: very fine interior with 1892 panelled and carved plaster ceiling with moulded cornices and ribs and acanthus rose within central panel, with acanthus, anthemion and scroll detail surrounding the rose and to adjoining panels; some original plaster detail at the E end.
FITTINGS: galleries remodelled or rebuilt by Trevail with detail similar to that of Mount Charles Chapel (1873), Leek Seed Chapel, refitted 1903 (qv) and Zion Chapel, 1880 (qv) the gallery front of different coloured woods with panels flanked by Ionic pilasters; pitch-pine pews and fine rostrum with canted front and centre break and detail similar to gallery front but with squat turned balustrades surmounting the panels; organ in apse. COLOURED GLASS: good coloured glass at the entrance end with central window depicting Wesley to the central roundel.
St Johns is a good example of a large early C19 galleried chapel and the re-fitting is of an exceptionally high standard.

Listing NGR: SX0116452595

External Links

• Wikidata Q17533058

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