Wheal Busy Chapel, Attached Walls, Gate-Piers And Railings

SW 74 NW 1044/1/10003

CHACEWATER WHEAL BUSY Wheal Busy Chapel, attached walls, gate-piers and railings

II*

Bible Christian chapel. 1863 datestone. MATERIALS: killas rubble with granite dressings; grouted scantle slate roofs with pierced and crested red clay ridge tiles and end finials; cast-iron ogee gutters and downpipes. PLAN: small rectangular aisle-less plan plus later C19 porch in front of original doorway; gallery to ritual west end. EXTERIOR: single storey; symmetrical 2-window front. Segmental brick arches over original 6/9-pane hornless sashes at both front and rear. Gable-ended porch has open braced truss as barge board over granite name and date panel with relief inscription. Basket-arched doorway has leaded overlight and pair of panelled doors; flanking leaded sidelights and side buttresses. INTERIOR: unaltered interior with plaster ceiling cornice and roses; panelled dado and panelled gallery front carried on brackets and the gallery suported on slender columns; L-plan staircases with stick balusters and turned newel posts. The original round-arched doorway has a spoked fanlight over pair of panelled doors. FITTINGS: there are box pews in both the gallery and in the central area below, plus space for loose fittings at either side. There are also box choir and leaders' pews ramped up on either side of the communion area and rostrum. The pews and other fittings are panelled, the lower pews have open balustraded friezes at the front and sides including the doors. The communion area has similar detail to its front and to a communion rail in front of the rostrum. There is a loose leaders' bench in front of this. The rostrum has a projecting panelled centrepiece with arched panels and a moulded cornice. There is a tall turned balustrade on either side with rounded corner to the right and a straight-flight staircase to the left. The handrail is surmounted by 2 turned lamp standards. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: on either side of a garden court at the front of the chapel isa slurried rubble wall with gabled coping. At the front of the courtyard are low granite coped walls surmounted by ornate cast-iron railings. The central gateway has square granite piers and a fine cast-iron gate, and there is a cobbled path which leads to the front door of the chapel. This is arguably the best surviving complete example of the simple type of wayside chapel in Cornwall and one of only 6 examples of its type to retain all the original fittings. The unusual and beautiful fittings are quite remarkable.

Listing NGR: SW7382445238