Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 08/05/2018

SW 63 SW
4/244

SITHNEY
Chynhale Methodist Church

GV
II
Methodist chapel. 1879. Designed by James Hicks of Redruth for William Bickford-Smith and built by W. Broad of Porthleven. Faced granite rubble brought to course, otherwise dressed granite architectural features with some Bath stone. Concrete tile roofs with coped gable ends. Rendered chimney over the north (ritual east) gable end.

Plan: rectangular aisless four plus one-bay plan with three-bay south front gable end (ritual west end). Two porches at either side (west and east walls), the main entrance porches extending from the third bay from the front and the other vestry porches (with south doorways) projecting from a lower organ bay at the rear. Early English style.

Three-bay south gable end front has weathered buttresses flanking the bays, the right and left hand buttresses clasping the corners. Tall plinth. Window to each bay the central three-light window taller and wider than the flanking two-light windows. Sills at the same level. Pointed arches with slender hoodmoulds rising from impost strings, machicolated gable over. The windows have pointed lancets, two to each side window with quatrefoil tracery over and three to the middle window with rose window tracery over. Leaded lights. Memorial plaque under each window, the middle one to: William Bickford-Smith 1827-1899, died at Trevarno. The Bickford-Smith family vault stands in front.

The side elevations are in similar style: plinths, buttresses between bays, machicolated cornice and two-light windows with pointed-arched lights and foiled plate tracery. The main entrance porches have central doorways to the gable ends with nook shafts to the jambs and dogs tooth decoration to the pointed arches. The rear porches three-light windows (similar to the others) to the machicolated gable ends and doorways to the front (south) with short nook shafts and stilted four-centred arches over. Leaded glazing in all the windows.

Interior: very complete interior with original features and fittings. The roof structure of four bays is arch braced, the lower braces, pierced with quatrefoils; meeting a hammer beam, and each truss springs from a corbel. Rectangular plaster panels with torus moulding between the trusses and purlins. The pointed window arches have hoodmoulds with carved label stops. Pointed chancel arch to organ bay has an inner order springing from detached shafts.

Fittings: the seating was supplied by John Berry for the sum of £85-11-6d. Pitch pine semi-circular on plan at the south end (ritual west) and rising in tiers; also some pews in the level floor area between. The pulpit, chairs and upholstery were supplied by Criddle and Smith: the pulpit is of several woods, rectangular on plan, cantilvered out at the front over a pointed arcade with Doric columns, the pulpit front and sides a blind pointed arcade with Ionic capitals, cinquefoils within the arches and the tympana carved in deep relief; a stair at the left hand side. The organ was presented to the trustees; June 1880, by Annie Bickford-Smith, Margaret Elizabeth Bickford-Smith and Emily Venning Bickford-Smith who died at Camborne on 22nd December, 1868 (inscribed above the keyboard).

Listing NGR: SW6419430854

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26434978

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)