Porthleven holiday let Old Sunday School sale completed for band room

The band's board of trustees has today announced the purchase of the Old Sunday School off Chapel Terrace for a band room.

In recent years the building has been used a holiday let, but it has now been returned to the community.

Trustees David Mitchell, Lynne Lees, Paul Combellack, Justin Uren and Vivian Hendy are said to have "worked tirelessly" to make their vision a reality for the members of Porthleven Town Band, with the purchase made possible due to a generous legacy from Dr Leonard and Mrs Kathleen Miller.

In a statement on the band's Facebook page, trustee Lynne Lees said: "This iconic, centrally based Grade II listed building has now been returned to the community for Porthleven Town Band and we couldn’t be happier."

She paid tribute to two late trustees, Russell Cowls and Alec Oliver, who had given such support to the band during their lives, adding: "Close to our thoughts throughout the whole process were two greatly missed trustees Russell Cowls and Alec Oliver and we pay tribute to their commitment and dedication to Porthleven Town Band over the years."

The band said the sale was "expertly guided" by Emma Mather of the Mather Partnership in Helston, who they thanked for her "constant professionalism and assistance."

The Old Sunday School in Porthleven is to become a band room Picture: Porthleven Town Band

Lynne concluded: "This building is no longer a second home, it will be filled with our players, the people of Porthleven, making wonderful music for generations to come."

Last month the band thanked its supporters after being given permission to alter the Grade Two listed former Methodist chapel to pave the way to it becoming a community rehearsal space.

The Old Sunday School was built in 1841 and was previously a Methodist School Room, and before that a Wesleyan Chapel. In 2002 it was given permission to be converted into residential use and has been used as a holiday let ever since.

The application to replace a window with a door, where there originally was an exit, was granted by Cornwall Council planners in early February. It is the only change that is needed to make the building suitable for community use.

Proposing the change, the design statement for the application said: "The proposed change of use from residential to assembly and recreation will give the applicant, The Porthleven Town Band a wonderful central position for practice use as part of its community spirit.

"The Porthleven Town Band is an important part of the fabric of the Porthleven community, and this proposed change of use will give a building which they can use with pride and ambition for concerts and practice.

"The lovely thing about this application is that it returns the building back to community use for the people living in the village, with such little physical change that no one would know that it had been changed.

"But the village would know because now the village is going to reuse the building rather than it be used as a holiday let."

A heritage impact statement for the application said that the original approvals granted permission to convert the building into a dwelling, which allowed an existing door opening on the south east side to be converted into a window. The new proposal was to amend the existing window back to a door with fanlight over.

"This would give the proposed assemble and recreational community use a necessary fire exit whilst returning to the original design," says the statement.

"By allowing a fanlight over this would continue to give natural light to the room inside.

"This is the only physical change to the building fabric that is proposed. But by doing this minimal change will enable the change of use to assembly and recreation, with the attendance increase in numbers, and comply with the building regulation requirement of an additional fire exit. The main entrance access does not change."