THE final chapter in a small piece of Methodist history will be written soon when the Wolston Green chapel at Landscove is converted into a private home.

The chapel was built by villagers in 1865 but without a damp course so that its woodwork rotted and it almost literally fell down.

It was rebuilt during the Second World War thanks to an extraordinary gift from Cornwall and was given an unexpected new lease of life.

Methodists in the village of Tredavarah were devastated when a German plane jettisoned a bomb while on its way home from a raid on Plymouth in 1941. It hit the village Methodist chapel and totally destroyed it.

The Cornish congregation decided not to rebuild and asked the Methodist authorities to hand over all the funds in their possession to help a deserving cause elsewhere.

The choice fell on Wolston Green which rebuilt its chapel — in much more sturdy fashion this time.

For more than 60 years the little church thrived, with a strong Sunday school and memorable harvest festivals and Christmas services. But in recent years support dwindled and four years ago it was decided to close the chapel down. Worshippers joined other churches in the area.

Now a local family has applied for planning permission to convert it into a house and Staverton parish councillors have indicated they have no objections.

Mrs Audrey Ball, widow of a Methodist minister, was the chapel secretary and organist and she said it closed because of lack of leadership and also because fewer young people were attending services.

"We always used to have one person who knew it all, did it all and perhaps bullied us all to keep things going," she says.

"Gradually there was no such leadership and many people didn't come any more."

Ironically Mrs Ball now lives at Ipplepen, just down the road, where the village Methodist church is thriving. This, she says, is because it has an active young membership and also because people moving into the village have joined in.

She believes the chapel will make a happy family home and feels confident that its romantic history and the Cornish connection will live on.

The extraordinary generosity of the people of Tredavarah is recorded on a plaque over the front door.