Little Trethewey Wesleyan Chapel

This is a Wesleyan (Nonconformist) chapel, built in 1868 and extended in the late 19th century. It is alternatively known as Chygwidden Chapel. The chapel is constructed of stuccoed walls with scantle slate roofs, featuring projecting eaves, a pedimented gable at the front, and a gable end at the rear, with cast-iron ogee gutters.

The plan is rectangular, comprising a four-bay aisle-less design and a porch on the right-hand side (the front elevation) between the first two bays, and a vestry between the second and third bays. A gallery extends across the front end, with an organ loft and choir gallery at the rear (the ritual east end). The architectural style is simple Italianate.

The exterior elevations are unaltered and single-storey, with round-arched openings with moulded architraves within recessed flat-headed keyed panels. All windows are 4-pane horned sashes. The front elevation features a simple entablature and moulded pediment with a traceried oculus. The porch has a pair of original 3-panel doors within a round-arched doorway. A 6-panel door and a sash window are set into the left-hand return wall of the vestry.

Inside, the interior is finely decorated in a simple style, with a moulded plaster ceiling cornice. A ramped gallery is supported by two Tuscan columns, with a balustraded and pilastered front, a moulded cornice broken forward over the columns, and a central break for a clock. The steep gallery staircase has a straight flight with a closed string and stick balustrade. The ritual east end features a turned balustrade to the front of the organ loft. Original pitch-pine box pews, including ramped pews to the gallery and underneath, are present. There is a painted late 19th-century rostrum with a turned balustrade, a lectern on consoles, and an open-string staircase with a stick balustrade. A bow-fronted communion rail with an overturned balustrade is also present, along with a piped organ with a panelled front and consoles to a moulded cornice.

The chapel is considered the best representative example of this type of wayside chapel in Cornwall, designed with an easily extendable plan. Its significance is enhanced by its group value, being the principal element in the finest wayside chapel group in Cornwall, forming part of a wider setting that includes a manse, graveyard walls, and a schoolroom.