Penryn Methodist Church has celebrated its 125th anniversary with a special service and a cake cutting ceremony.

The Rev Robbie Bowen led the service, which was attended by chairman of the Methodist district, the Rev Steven Wild; Penryn mayor, Shelley Peters; the new officer in charge of Falmouth and Penryn Sea Cadets, Petty Officer Fran Mitchell; PCSO Ellie Grey and parishioners from Penryn and Mylor.

During the service, a certificate was presented to Morwenna Bennett in recognition of her 27 years as a local preacher; and afterwards a cake was cut by Cynthia Prior, Martin Bennett and Mary Pearce - the oldest members of the church family - before everyone tucked into a buffet lunch to celebrate the church's anniversary.

By 1848 the old Methodist Chapel in Church Lane, which had been built in 1789, had become too small for the growing population of Penryn and regularly reached its capacity of 450 so it was decided a new place of worship was needed.

A site was acquired on the main street to build Penryn Weslyan Church with the foundation stone laid on August 17, 1891 by the architect, J W Trounson. The chapel was built by Carkeek of Redruth with the stonework done by John Freeman & Co of Penryn using local granite.

The new chapel could seat 450 people on the ground floor and another 400 people in the gallery. The cost of the building work was £5,000, which did not include the cost of buying the land, and it took 40 years to pay it off.

The chapel opened on February 14, 1893, with a service attended by the mayor, Mr J M Thomas, and corporation of Penryn. Dr J H Rigg preached the sermon, which lasted nearly an hour, and there were a band and choir conducted by the mayor. A further service took place in the evening led by Mr G J Smith from Truro.

Five days after the opening, three baptisms took place and the first wedding was on February 27 when two choir members, Darce Moore and Ernie Clemens wed. The first minister was the Rev Michael Westcombe and the caretaker was Mrs Slade.

During the 1920s the gas lighting was replaced with electric and while some seating was being removed in the 1990s a cupboard was discovered containing the original gas meter from 1893. British Gas were informed and decided it was of such interest, that it was removed and put on display in their museum.

The chapel was bombed in 1941 and worship was shared with the Bible Christian Chapel in West Street.

In 1979 the Bible Christian Chapel in West Street closed and the congregation joined the Weslyan Chapel, with the amalgamation renaming the Chapel – Penryn Methodist Church.