Methodist Church And Forecourt Wall, Railings And Gateway

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