Saltash Wesley Church History

From 1807- present day

The present Wesley Church at Saltash in Cornwall was built in 1990. It is the second church built on this site. The previous church had to be demolished due to structural defects, but even that one was not the original.

The first Methodist Chapel in the town was in use from 1807 until 1891. It was in that year that a new building known as the Wesley Centenary Church was opened. In 1911 it was re-opened after major alterations and the building continued to be used until the fateful night of Monday, 28th of April 1941, when, in an air raid that started at 9.55pm and ended at 1.15am, it was destroyed by fire.

After offers of help from the Anglicans and Baptists in the town and the use of the Guildhall as premises for worship, the congregation moved back into the very first building that they had left fifty years previously in 1891, which had been sold to a local masonic lodge.

In 1953 a new Church was opened and this building continued in use until 1988. It is significant that a stone which forms part of the structure of the new 1990 building is inscribed with these words.

TO US THE TASK, TO OTHERS THE BENEFIT, TO GOD THE GLORY.