Gulval Methodist Church And Attached Forecourt Walls, Gates And Railings

This is a nonconformist chapel dating from 1884. It is constructed of Killas rubble with granite dressings, featuring a dry Delabole slate roof with coped gable ends, a brick stack over the rear gable, crested and pierced clay ridge tiles, and original cast-iron rainwater goods. The building’s plan includes a chapel with a horseshoe amphitheatre seating arrangement, set above a basement schoolroom, with a porch located in the centre of the left-hand return, accessible via a ramp from the road. The design is an interesting blend of simple Classical style with some Gothic features. The two-storey elevations have a three-bay ritual east end fronting the road, with the central bay broken forward beneath an incomplete pediment. The central chapel bay exhibits a mid-Gothic style three-light granite window incorporating quatrefoil rose tracery. Other chapel windows are round-arched with glazing bars extended as margin glazing to each arch. There are four bays on the right-hand return, while the left-hand return features a gabled porch with a round-arched doorway, framed by panelled doors and a spoked fanlight above. Basement windows have transomed glazing bars, and the basement serves as a plinth.

The interior is complete and unaltered. The plastered ceiling is trefoil in section, creating the impression of a nave flanked by aisles, and rises from a moulded cornice with moulded ribs marking the truss positions. At the ritual east end is a tripartite arrangement of three round moulded arches carried on fluted piers and responds with moulded caps and enriched cornices.

The original pitch-pine fittings include pews with shaped ends and ceramic numbers, which ramp up from a small central horseshoe-shaped area of the floor. A bow-fronted communion rail is set on a turned balustrade over a step. The rostrum features a bowed S-panel centre with arched panels, pilasters and moulded cornices, flanked by short straight sections topped with turned balustrades and terminal turned lamp stands with panelled bases over fluted pilasters. A short flight of stairs with open strings and turned balusters is located on either side. Behind the rostrum is a shallow end gallery with pilasters and panels featuring diagonal boarding.

The building is accompanied by low rubble and granite-coped forecourt walls, two pairs of square granite gate-piers with pyramid caps, iron gates, and railings. The Gulval Methodist Church is one of the best examples of a nonconformist chapel of this date in Cornwall, combining an unusual blend of Classical and Gothic styles within a well-balanced design. It groups with a virtually unaltered row of small early 18th century houses, its plan arranged with a high external quality and a good interior designed as a semi-amphitheatre.