Thomas Green , the Primitive Methodist minister, completed returns on behalf of a number of Primitive Methodist chapels to the 1851 Census of Places of Public Religious worship including two in St Austell.
The older and larger of the chapels was erected about 1821 and seated 238: on Census Sunday 50 people attended services in the afternoon and evening. The other chapel held 122, mainly in free seats and had a larger attendance – 66 in the afternoon and 60 in the evening. Neither chapel had a Sunday school on that day.
Where were these chapels? How are they linked to the later chapels shown on this site?
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Might one of the chapels be in High Cross Street, as that is where Thomas Green’s manse was? The dates should be taken with a pinch of salt: John Petty tells us that St. Austell was evangelised by the Primitive Methodists in 1828. That is when the baptism register begins. Pigott’s Directory of Cornwall of 1831 mentions a number of nonconformist groups having chapels in St. Austell, but not the Primitive Methodists. The Calendar of Trust Deeds lists a Primitive Methodist trust being set up in 1845, with two buildings being bought in 1850, and a chapel being built in 1857.
The two chapels recorded in 1851 will be the two buildings held in trust, but the question remains as to where they actually were. It could well be that one was replaced in 1857, and the other in 1877 when the chapel in South Street opened. Perhaps local historians can help with these questions.
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