Penzance; Mount Street Primitive Methodist Church
Cornwall
When we were on holiday in Cornwall, my husband Roger took a picture of Mount Street Primitive Methodist Chapel in Penzance. There were very few Primitive Methodist Chapels opened in West Cornwall, because, as well as the Wesleyans, there were strong Bible Christian, Wesleyan Reform and United Methodist Free Church causes already.
The Primitive Methodists in Penzance had used various rooms for meeting before opening their first chapel in Mount Street in 1839. This was gradually expanded until the chapel could seat 700. Then a new chapel was built in 1899, keeping only the side walls of the old chapel and rebuilding the rest. The new chapel cost £1,500 and could seat 500.
The chapel continued in use after Union until the late 1960’s. Revd Tony Barnes, who informed me of its PM origins, remembers that he gave his first address from the pulpit there in 1963. The building has now been developed as a block of flats, but the exterior remains unchanged.
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I’ve added a transcript of the return from Mount Street Primitive Methodist chapel to the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious worship. Completed by the minister, William Nation, it shows a prospering active society, complete with Sunday school.
There’s an account in the Primitive Methodist magazine (August 1847 page 503-504) of the re-opening of the chapel in 1847 after work had been done on it. R Bosence tells us that the chapel re-opened on May 23rd 1847.
An unusual view of the interior of Mount Street Primitive Methodist Chapel, Penzance has been added to this page. Does anyone know what the occasion was?
Cornwall Archives:
Ref. MRPZ/143-8: Bond and other items, Mount Street, Penzance Primitive Methodist Chapel 1940. 1898-c.1929.
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