New owners have taken over Helston's Epworth Hall and are now appealing for help in making the building a "community hub for the town."

The hall in Coinagehall Street is currently used for regular theatre productions, including as the home of Helston Theatre Company, as well as by dance and judo groups, the Flora Day dance rehearsals each year and for some community events.

However, it could soon also become a commercial kitchen providing "meals on wheels," the base for a debt counsellor offering support in the community, a heritage room and youth facilities including a music recording studio and computer suite.

The team behind the ambitious plans is the Central Methodist Church, which has taken back the running of the hall after the Epworth Hall Management Committee decided it wanted to terminate the lease as grant aid was hard to find for a leasehold property, particularly one more than half way through its lease.

The Methodist Church will now with the management team to continue improving facilities and open the hall - which actually started life as the original Methodist church in Coinagehall Street - to more community projects.

Initial concepts are for a commercial kitchen providing meals to the community, which would create some part-time employment, while the church has recently employed a Christians Against Poverty debt counsellor who will be serving the TR13 postcode area from an office in the hall, with some form of emergency bedroom, to further the church's work with the homeless and poverty stricken.

A heritage room would be set up to highlight how Methodism began as an outreach movement, possibly linking into some form of local family history and Cornish artefacts, with a children’s soft play area and access to café facilities, also bringing further employment to the town.

A music recording studio, practise areas and a computer technology suite where specialist support could be offered to students and individuals is another ambition, whilst still maintaining and improving the hall for the various groups that already use it.

Rev Danny Reed, superintendent minister of the Lizard and Mount's Bay Methodist Circuit, said: "We are hoping to inspire the community to make the Epworth Hall a community hub in the town.

"The church has put aside a large amount of money to start the refurbishment, alongside making applications to various granting bodies, but we need all the help we can get to make this a reality."

An "Overhaul the Epworth Hall" fortnight is being planned for the first two weeks of July, when it is hoped local businesses, hall supporters and members of the church will come together to offer time, skills, materials or finance.

Starting on July 2 and ending July 14, the "DIY SOS - Helston style" project needs plumbers, electricians, plasterers, labourers, carpenters, carpet layers, painters and decorators, along with cleaners, window makers, builders, gardeners and people to get rid of waste - not to mention make tea and feed the busy workers.

Donations of money would also be welcomed, with acknowledged given on a big plaque to be added in the hall as a mark of gratitude for the community's efforts.

"If you can help us in any way we and the community would be so grateful," added Rev Danny.

To offer support email Rev Danny at daniel.reed2@live.co.uk or donations can be sent to 2 Parc Ledden, Helston, TR13 8NB.

The Epworth Hall was actually the second meeting place for Methodists in Helston and was built in 1798, as the original chapel on the Coinagehall site. It became superseded when the current chapel was built in 1888, and by the 1980s and 1990s the Epworth Hall had fallen into disrepair.

At that time an agreement was made to form an Epworth Hall Management Committee, to help it become something like a village hall. Unfortunately, lottery funding was switched from village halls to the Olympics in London in 2012 and the promised grants were not forthcoming.

Undeterred, the management committee successfully oversaw a large amount of improvements works, which has included the addition of a disabled toilet and tiered seating that has secured the hall as a home for Helston’s drama groups.