Salcombe Methodist Church
A demolition team at work on the building in December 2001 discovered a glass time capsule. They had not previously known of its existence, so it was accidentally broken while the building was being razed. However, the contents were in tolerable condition, and their dates show that the capsule was buried during the stonelaying of Easter 1927.
Methodists first held services in Salcombe in 1808, meeting in the kitchen of a house at number 3 Buckley Street. The original building has since been demolished, but was on the site now occupied by Dormers.
Numbers grew, so they moved to a large room which was used on weekdays as a schoolroom. This was in Elliott’s Court, off Chapel End, now called Clifton Place.
Outgrowing the schoolroom, they bought two cottages at Island, converting these into their first chapel, which was opened in 1824. With the congregation still growing, the premises needed enlarging, and so in 1841 a Sabbath School was built and opened. The plaque seen in the photograph was incorporated into each succeeding chapel, and was rescued while the Allenhayes Road church was being demolished.
The 1824 chapel was replaced by another in 1849, built on roughly the same site. It was extended and improved over the years.
After some 70 years passed, dilapidations had begun to mount, until finally a decision was made to build anew. With the promise of a grant, a more spacious site in another part of the town was bought, at Allenhayes Road, and a 500-seat chapel was erected, large enough, so it was hoped, to accommodate the affluent Methodists who would surely retire to Salcombe.
The first service on the site was an open-air one, held on July 13, 1926, and a stonelaying ceremony for the new Sunday School took place on January 13, 1927. Stonelaying services of the new chapel were held at Easter 1927, and it was opened on Easter Monday, 1928. A contemporary account says it was “filled in every part”.
Yet, despite a promising start, the high hopes were not realized. For one thing, the difficult site in Allenhayes Road and a shortage of money meant the result was architecturally disappointing. The architect had designed other Methodist buildings, including Devonport Central Hall, and he sent the Salcombe Methodists pictures of several of his other chapels, including one at Lincoln, which he said was especially adaptable to Salcombe. But the Salcombe site presented its own problems because it was surrounded on two sides by higher ground. This meant that the new two-storey chapel had to be built below road level, with the entrance to the sanctuary at first floor level, approached by a pedestrian bridge.
Even these problems might have been overcome, had it not been for more serious concerns. Salcombe, once a close-knit community of mainly working people, gradually changed as the years passed. The beauty of its surroundings and its mild climate, with greater wealth among some sections of the nation’s population, far from attracting into retirement the affluent Methodists hoped for, in fact attracted an increasing number of second-home owners, who were mostly absent for much of the year. Furthermore, fewer people attended church nationally.
These two circumstances resulted in the once-thriving Salcombe Methodists dwindling, until the upkeep of the large building proved too heavy a burden for the loyal handful of members remaining. There was no other option than to close the chapel, with great regret and sell the site. The final service was held in December 2000, ending nearly 200 years of Methodist public worship in Salcombe. Salcombe Methodists now worship at Kingsbridge.
Demolition of the chapel began on Monday, November 12, 2001, and was completed on Friday, January 11, 2002. Residential housing now occupies the site.
Allenhayes Road, 1928 - 2001
Poster advertising Stonelaying Services Easter 1927
This inscribed stone was recovered during demolition of the church. It had been on the lower face of a dividing wall on the stairs descending to the lower hall.
Front page of the Methodist Recorder Thursday, April 7th, 1927
Front and rear pages of a leaflet giving details of Stonelaying Services, Easter 1927.
Centre pages of a leaflet giving details of Stonelaying Services, Easter 1927
Inside pages of the Methodist Recorder. Few photographs were used. There were only 14 throughout this 24-page issue, and none were larger than any of the four shown.
