Churches of the British Isles

Cubert Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (First Site) sits at the north-west corner of the High Lanes and Wesley Road junction, on the High Lanes approach to Cubert. This whitewashed building with blue plaque is now residential, but Methodism in Cubert can be traced back to 1751 when John Wesley first preached here. The chapel was built in 1765 by his close friend, Joseph Hoskin. A second, larger chapel replaced this when it became too small (see below).

The Church of St Cubertus, Cubert, sits on the western side of Churchtown, which leads south off Holywell Road, not too far from the first Wesleyan chapel (above). It is an unusual church in that its spire and tower are more or less equal in height. The first church on this site would have been a small, simple wooden building, probably with a thatched roof. The Norman period would have seen it replaced with a stone-built church with slate roof, and with a nave and tower.

The third iteration of this church in Cubert was built between AD 1200-1300. This provided the core for today's building. The south aisle was added in the fifteenth century, with its fine colonnade of pillars, and the south transept was rebuilt into the south wall. The spire was added somewhat later and is not typical of Cornish churches which generally have square towers. In the mid-1800s, after lightening struck both the tower and the spire, there were further alterations.

The village and church are named after the Welsh missionary, St Cubert, who introduced (or reintroduced) the Christian faith to this part of Cornwall. The early spread of Christianity in Britain is only faintly understood. The village has been without its prefix 'St' since the 1500s or 1600s when it was dropped while, at the same time, the churchwardens whitewashed over the figure of St Cubert dressed as an abbot on the inside wall of the church (probably at the Reformation).

Cubert Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (Second Site) is on Holywell Road's north side, and on the eastern side of the footpath to Chapel Green Play Park, eighty metres west of Churchtown. This replaced the first chapel (see above), and in 1894 a Sunday school was added to the side of the chapel. By the early 2000s attendances had shrunk dramatically so the Sunday school was converted into a smaller chapel (see links) and this building was sold for residential use.

Three photos on this page by Jo Lewis, and three kindly contributed by Roy Reed via the 'History Files: Churches of the British Isles' Flickr group.