Brake Services

Brake Services is a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, now functioning as a motor parts warehouse, dated 1843 as indicated in the pediment. The building is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with granite quoins and dressings, while the rear and south side are made of uncoursed rubble. It features a slate roof and has a rectangular plan oriented on an east-west axis, consisting of four bays by four bays, with a gable facing the road.

The structure is two storeys tall, with an exposed basement. The symmetrical four-bay facade has raised quoins and round-headed openings with quoined surrounds. The facade is set back from the pavement, and the central entrance is accessed by a ramped bridge over the basement area, which is protected by cast-iron railings on low walls that curve outward at the ends. The doorway features a raised keystone and a fanlight with curvilinear tracery from around 1900, along with modern glazed doors. There are two ground floor windows (now boarded) and four first floor windows, which have early 20th-century joinery creating two round-headed lights. A hollow-moulded cornice adorns the pediment, which includes a triangular sunk panel containing an oculus with a moulded surround, and below this, the inscription "WESLEY CHAPEL 1843" in attached metal lettering. The roof ridge has two ventilators.

The basement and side walls contain square-headed windows; the basement windows are now boarded, while the others feature wooden ogee-headed tracery from around 1900 and Art Deco stained glass. The rear of the building has a shallow apse with two small round-headed windows and a monopitched roof.

Inside, despite the change in use, many essential features of the original chapel remain intact. These include a horseshoe gallery supported by iron Tuscan columns with coupled brackets, which hold up a jettied front that is panelled and decorated with stencilled designs from around 1900. There is a semi-elliptical arch leading to the choir gallery, flanked by fluted Corinthian pilasters, and a large ceiling rose. The chapel was primarily funded by a single donor, Edward Burall, as referenced in Thomas Shaw's "A History of Cornish Methodism," published in 1967.