A simple structure built in the 1930s as a parish hall and temporary church. 

Historically Redruth and its neighbour Camborne served the tin mining area of southwest Cornwall, and there has been a long tradition of rivalry between the two towns. The Assumption was established from Camborne, and a site near the Miners’ Hospital on the London-Penzance road was bought for £500 in 1934. The site appears to have been part of the grounds of Parkhenver, a mid-nineteenth century villa built by the Penrose family and surviving today as a convent belonging to the sisters of St Joseph of Annecy.  The intention was to build a church, parish hall and presbytery, but sums were available only to build the parish hall, which would double up temporarily as a church. The foundation stone for this building (architect J. Walter of Paignton) was laid by Mgr Mahoney, Vicar General, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in December 1935, and the hall-cum-church opened in the following year.  The permanent church has never been built.

Description

The church is of longitudinal plan, faced in granite, with cast concrete dressings and a slate roof. The windows are of uPVC. There is a moulded cornice to the western gable end, with a circular window in the gable; in front of this an entrance porch with a moulded cornice and gabled central section with an open pediment, containing a smaller circular window over the door. The bay divisions on the flank elevations are marked by pilaster strips. On the north side there is a projecting single storey pebbledashed addition, housing a sacristy.  Round-arched window and open pediment to east elevation. Inside, the main worship area is a single space with a scissor-braced roof. A triple-arched arrangement at the east end contains the sanctuary and flanking altars/shrines. There are no furnishings of particular note.

Heritage Details