Penzance, High Street Methodist Church
High St Methodist Church, Taroveor Road, Penzance TR18 2AA
This little Church located on the corner of Taroveor Road and the High Street was opened with great delight on 30th May 1879. This was during an extraordinary expansion of the town following the opening of the railway station some 27 years previously. It began life as a Bible Christian Chapel, built as a response to the growing numbers of people coming to faith, no doubt causing some controversy as the Bible Christian Society was not recognised at that point by other Christian groups. The small group of believers actually met in a lady’s home in 1850, they grew in number and used various sites for worship in Penzance as their success brought both challenges and opportunities. The culmination of this was the purchase of the present site, the foundation stone being laid on 29th April 1878. Apparently a time capsule was buried under this stone, although it is not quite clear where that stone was laid. The total cost of this building was £2000!
The Bible Christian National Conference was held there in both 1890 and 1900. It was in 1907 that the Bible Christian Society joined with the Methodist New Connexion and the Methodist Free Churches joined to create the Methodist Church as we know it today.
The witness of those early years still continues today. We are very conscious of all those Ministers and members of the congregation who contributed faithfully to our present ministry in the town. Without their faith, we would not be able to have our weekly services, Thursday fellowship and Communion, as well as various activities through the year. We are small but mighty and rely on God’s good grace to be our foundation, just as the founders did, all those years ago.
In May 2022 the CHCT awarded a grant of £2,100 towards the cost of repairs to ceiling following falls of lime plaster.