Modern Britain

Nanpean Methodist Chapel (Free United) is on the west side of Currian Road in Nanpean, about seventy metres north of the Fore Street junction. The original chapel stood in the middle of what is now the car park, built in 1873 along with a Sunday School behind it. In 1990 the chapel required a huge amount of work so instead it had to be demolished in 1994. After much local fundraising the Sunday School was rebuilt in 1995 and rededicated in 1996 as the new chapel.

The Mission Church of St George the Martyr, Nanpean, lies on the northern side of the road of the same name, and getting there means passing the former Nanpean Reading Room on the east side of Fore Street, thirty metres north of the Grenville Meadows junction. This mission to St Stephen-in-Brannel was built by Mr George Fortescue of Boconnoc Estate in 1878. The design was by Silvanus Trevail and land was acquired behind it to serve as a cemetery.

Foxhole United (Free) Methodist Chapel is at the south-west corner of Chapel Road and Beacon Road, on the B3279 south of Nanpean. Both chapel and Sunday School were built in 1894. A newspaper and a newly minted penny were placed under the foundation stone. The school opened in 1911. The chapel was once a listed building - later removed. Baptismal records exist for 1885-1996, suggesting an earlier chapel. This one was converted for private use in 2004.

Old Pound Bible Christian Chapel, can be located by taking Chegwyns Hill from Foxhole and heading northwards towards the clay works. Old Pound will be on the left and the chapel lies on its northern side. This listed chapel was built in 1886, according to the date stone, but an OS map of 1881 shows it already present - either an earlier building or one that was late in being dedicated. Today it is Mid-Cornwall Christian Church, a Pentecostal church, perhaps since 1932.

Greensplat United Methodist Chapel was part of a settlement that existed until 1997, complete with a Sunday School. Due to expansion by the nearby Wheal Martyn china clay quarry the centre of Greensplat was entirely demolished. Until the chapel and its Sunday School were pulled down in 1997, Greensplat was still considered to be a village. There is now nothing left of the village and access to the original site is cut off, although the lost area is recognised by road signs.

Five photos on this page by Jo Lewis, and one kindly contributed by Douglas Law via the 'History Files: Churches of the British Isles' Flickr group. The story of Greensplat's demolition is told in The Lost Villages, Henry Buckton (I B Tauris & Co Ltd, London, Feb 2008).