There has been an Independent, Protestant, dissenting congregation and meeting house in Tregony since 1750.
This Church was built in 1824 and is grade 2 listed. It is marked on old maps as a United Methodist (presumably United Methodist Free Church) church until 1907 when it is marked as a Congregational Church. This is probably the original Methodist church before the congregation moved up the road.
In the 1820’s a private, fee paying, boys boarding school was opened at Tregony by Dr James Hart who was also a Minister at the local Congregational Chapel. The school, which was one of the largest in Cornwall, stayed in existence until 1893 when it was destroyed by fire.
As the congregational church, it was one of the few remaining independent Congregational church (those that did not become part of the United Reformed Church ) but recently it became independent from the Congregational Federation. It changed its name to the Bible Christian Church and is still active in the village with its own Facebook group – not to be confused with the original Bible Christian chapel down the road
Comments about this page
It would appear that the 1880 Ordnance Survey map, which marks this building as ‘Methodist chapel (United)’ is the only evidence that this was ever any form of Methodist society. The Trust deeds (6 Geo IV 17.14) indexed in the 32nd Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, Vol II, Appendix II (1871) state that it was an Independent cause. The return for the 1851 Religious Census for this building (HO 129/307/13) states that it is an Independent chapel, erected in 1824. The next two reurns (13A and 14) are for the Wesleyan and Bible Christian chapels in Tregoney. We are unable to check the Registrar General’s 1867 list of places of public worship because none of the chapels in Tregoney appear to be on the list. The Free Methodist Manual of 1898 does not list a chapel in Tregoney. By 1907 the Ordnance Survey record the building as being in Congregational use.
I will be happy to be proved wrong, but there is no evidence for a United Methodist Free Church in Tregoney.
Add a comment about this page