Balwest is a hamlet in the civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Germoe

Germoe

Germoe is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. Germoe village, the parish's principal settlement and church town, is situated approximately five miles west of Helston and seven miles east of Penzance. The A394 Penzance to Helston road runs along the southern boundary of the...

 in west Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

The hamlet is on the southern edge of a former mining

Mining in Cornwall

Mining in Cornwall and Devon began in the early Bronze Age approximately 2,150 BC and ended with the South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall closing in 1998...

 area, part of a geological formation known as the Tregonning-Godolphin Granite (one of five granite batholith

Batholith

A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's crust...

s in Cornwall) which was formerly an important source of tin and copper ore (see also Geology of Cornwall

Geology of Cornwall

The Geology of Cornwall is dominated by its granite backbone, part of the Cornubian batholith, formed during the Variscan orogeny. Around this is an extensive metamorphic aureole formed in the mainly Devonian slates that make up most of the rest of the county...

).

A Wesleyan Methodist

Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)

The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the name used by the major Methodist movement in Great Britain following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements...

chapel was opened at Balwest in 1829 for miners. The building is Grade II listed.