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Chacewater Reading Room is in the
centre of Chacewater, on the north side of Fore Street, twenty
metres west of the Station Road junction. The foundation stone
was laid in 1893 by Mr J Passmore Edwards on a site which had
been donated by Lord Falmouth. The building comprises a billiard
room, reading-room, and committee room. The last two were divided
by a strong-framed, panelled, folding, wooden partition which
allowed a larger event space to be created.
Chacewater Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
is on the western side of Station Road, forty metres from the
Fore Street junction. It was built in 1832, but may incorporate
fragments of an earlier 1830s meeting house. The building was
renovated in 1905, and became Station Road Methodist
Church in 1932. The two Methodist societies here amalgamated
around 1978 (see below), using this building until it was declared
unsafe around 2001. It was sold for flats in 2008.
Chacewater Methodist Church is on
the opposite side of Fore Street, heading to the south tip
of The Square to find Church Hill. The congregation meets in
this building - the village hall. That congregation formed
about 1978 out of an amalgamation of East End Church (below)
and Station Road Church (above). When the Station Road
premises proved unfit for use about 2001, meetings started
to be held here. Twelveheads Church joined it in 2022 (see
links).
The Church of St Paul, Chacewater, is
on the eastern side of Church Hill, around 250 metres to the
south of the village hall. The original church building was a
late Georgian construction of 1828. It had a restrained,
perpendicular design of elvan and granite with some stone
dressings. Bishop Carey of Exeter consecrated it on 2 August
1828. It included three galleries and a seating capacity of
1,500. On 3 February 1866 it was struck by lightning, splitting
the wall from ground to roof.
When St Paul's Church was rebuilt in 1892,
the galleries disappeared and the seating capacity was reduced
to five hundred, while the lych gate was added. In 1983 it was
felt the building should be modernised. A new altar was added
and some of the pews were removed to create a space which is
now known as the 'Common Room'. The earlier oak and mahogany
grained panels, now within the tower, show important Christian
texts, all written in the Gothic style.
Chacewater Primitive Methodist Chapel
is found by returning back to the village, being located on the
northern side of Fore Street where it becomes Chacewater Hill.
The chapel was opened in 1830 and had an associated Sunday
school. It was enlarged in 1882, but became East End Methodist
Church in 1932. The congregation amalgamated with that of the
Station Road Wesleyans around 1978, moving into their building
and then into the village hall (both above).
All photos on this page by Jo Lewis.
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