Heritage Trail: 1900-1999

For most of the twentieth century the St Ives Wesley Methodist Church was the largest Chapel in the West of England.

Each of the chapel buildings provided a different function for the local community. Wesley Hall and the Wesleyan School’s principal function was to be the place where the Sunday school assembled, as well as being the venue for midweek guild meetings and concerts. The Wesley Chapel was the spiritual home for many in St Ives providing a Methodist education of moral principles and action

In the 1930’s these Chapel buildings played an important role in educating local boys. During this era the boy’s section of The Stennack Junior school (1881-1988) just up the road (now the Stennack medical surgery) became overcrowded and needed additional overflow facilities, which was secured using the Wesley Hall and School. All boys had to spend at least one year ‘living out’ at Wesley Hall. Wesley Hall was also used during WWII when evacuees arrived in the town.

At this time Wesley Hall had a stage with a piano and a blackboard, and a large stove on the inner wall (next to the link way door). The current mezzanine structure didn’t exist then, this being added in the later. The courtyard was the playground and the rooms on the ground floor were used by the men’s fellowship for recreational activities. Scouts, Brownies, Cubs, Wesley Junior Guild YMCA and Christian Endeavour met here. Concerts were also performed here.

From the second half of the twentieth century the Wesley Hall and School embarked on a different journey that would see it where it is today. There has been a Wesleyan Youth hostel operating in this building since the early 1960’s.The Church council at the time spent £700 adapting the Wesleyan school into accommodation rooms (as it is now) with Wesley Hall became the dining room for visiting groups. A food lift was installed to bring meals up from the kitchen to long tables which were laid out across the hall. It was named the St Ives Wesleyan Youth Hostel and the original sign for this can still be seen externally above the rear fire exit door next to what is now Room 13.

The hostel welcomed hundreds of young people every year to St Ives providing budget accommodation; in 1989 the average cost of a bed was £1.35/night. One of the first young people to stay here was Kathleen Richardson who later became the first female president of the Methodist conference.

The hostel was true to its Christian faith and supported many causes sometimes offering free accommodation to the National Children’s Home. The ground floor of the Wesleyan School building (now St Ives theatre rehearsal rooms) was a coffee bar. Here The Open Door  – a circuit sponsored drop-in centre – cooked meals for 60 people a night many of whom were homeless people living up in Steeple Woods.

In 1992 a job creation schemecreated by local councillor William Mitchell undertook much needed repair work to the chapel walls.  It was this scheme we can thank for the beautiful point work we can see on many parts of the building’s exterior.

In the 1990’s the Methodist church felt it had a surplus of buildings in the town and explored the idea to offload the Wesley Chapel complex. St Ives had four large buildings for one church fellowship, which had a declining membership and stood at only 89 people at that time.

A local community group was formed called The St Ives Action Trust to acquire these Wesleyan buildings. Their idea was to retain the hostel (as it supplied an income) and provide the town with a theatre and a community Heritage Centre.

The group set in motion a national campaign to raise 250K for this transformation. At one point, irrespective of its enthusiasm to make this project happen (and reflecting the moral principles of its Methodist DNA) a major cash grant from the National lottery was turned down due to its opposition to gambling.

However, the Methodist Church Redevelopment committee did not believe these plans to redevelop the building were financially viable and in December 1997 the committee made the recommendation to sell the building. The following month members of the St Ives United Methodist Church decided to accept this recommendation to put this historic building up for sale.

The St Ives Action Trust were disappointed with this result and the way the Church came to its decision as they believed their idea was financially sound because of the unique success of the Wesleyan Youth Hostel. A complaint was made to the Charity Commission who was asked to investigate the way the United Methodist Church reached its conclusions to sell. No fault was found.

In February 1998 the Grade II listed Wesleyan Chapel and hostel was put on the market for £250k.Wesley Chapel and the Wesleyan Hostel was split into two with one half (the chapel) being sold to the local Kidz R Us youth theatre group.The Wesleyan hostel was sold to a private buyer in Oct 1998 for £125K – this then became the St Ives Backpackers hostel.