There’s an exciting opportunity opening up in the Cornish village of St Merryn to do something really positive for the community.

St Merryn’s old Methodist chapel was inspired and built by the people of St Merryn in 1908 for communal use. It is now closed. The chances are if it is sold it will be lost to the community for ever. Its future is uncertain.

The site itself includes two buildings next to the school (the chapel and the old school building), plus a small area of land. The owners, The Methodist Church, are offering the two buildings and garden to the people of St Merryn, with Tubestation as stewards, to become a vibrant community hub once again!

As stewards of this exciting new project, Tubestation has committed a small dedicated team to:

• pull in the ideas from around the community
• fundraise
• employ architects and builders to make the changes
• run it

The tubestation team has appointed PBWC Architects of St Ives  to look at the concept and design, and create a feasibility study for the site. Estimates at cost are around £300,000 to make initial changes including refurbishing and equipping the buildings for activities, and it will be the job of the team to raise money as we go. (The Polzeath project, which is now self-sustaining, cost around £250,000. This money was raised from grants and donations.)

And what of the church? Well, the church has closed, but if there is a demand for church meetings of some kind to be held here in future then they could do. Part of Tubestation’s remit is to encourage ecclesial groups to form. The only current user group is the Red Cross, and it is hoped that whatever changes are made will serve to enhance their weekly meetings, as well as those of other groups at different times.

This is a really exciting opportunity for the community of St Merryn, and could provide solutions for some of the needs the community has identified as being important

Our strapline says, “Imagine a blank canvas is offered for the whole community to paint on!…” Tubestation is encouraging every member of the community to join the conversation and help create this project together. To find out how to do this, click here.