Today’s Neyyoor is a small town sandwiched between the picturesque Western Ghats and the blue Arabian sea, in the middle of Kanyakumari District (Cape Comorin) which is the southern most district of India and Tamil Nadu State. Today it can boast of two Higher Secondary Schools, Ms. McIlroy English Medium School, a Nursing School, a Nursing College and a Railway Station hardly a kilometre away. It has a General Hospital of great repute started in 1838, with an adjacent ‘International Cancer Centre’. All these developments are due to the visionary Rev.Charles Mead who with great difficulty acquired enough bushy forestland from generally hostile caste Hindus with the help of Mr.Raman Thambi who, though a caste Hindu was a great friend of Christian Missionaries and of early Christians. Missionary Mead then cleared the area and Neyyoor came into existence.
 

As the number of churches grew, the need for a Second Mission Headquarters was felt for administrative reasons and Neyyoor was chosen (1828). A church became imperative and 1829 saw the first Neyyoor Dartsmouth Chapel, which faced north. From a few homes in Rev.Mead’s time the congregation grew and by the turn of the century its extension became a dire necessity. In 1901, after closing the northern side the church building was extended towards the east and Rev. I.H. Hacker completed the structure with  the  bell-fry  in  1904, before  the  retirement  of   Rev. S. Zachariah, the first native missionary, belonging to Neyyoor.