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Preaching, pits, miners, and John Wesley in rural Cornwall

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METHODISM BECAME SUCCESSFUL in the county of Cornwall. Although I do not pretend to understand this branch of Christianity in any detail, I was curious to know why it had such a great appeal for the Cornish people. Apart from the great number of Methodist chapels one passes when travelling through Cornwall, there were several places associated with Methodism that sparked my interest. I will write about these after discussing why the branch of Christianity, founded by John Wesley (1703-1791), his brother Charles Wesley (1707-1788), and George Whitefield (1714-1770), was so widely accepted by the Cornish.

Most Methodists believe that Jesus Christ died for all of humanity, and that salvation can be achieved by everyone. This is in contrast to the Calvinist belief that God has pre-ordained the salvation of only a select group of people. Whitefield held the Calvinist position, but the Wesley brothers believed that all could be saved. Part of the appeal of Wesleyan Methodism in Cornwall was that it did not select those who could be saved from those who could not – everybody was eligible for salvation.

John Wesley first visited, and preached in, Cornwall in 1743, and then made a further 32 visits before his death in 1791 (www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/people/john_wesley.htm). During this period, Anglicanism was in decline in the county. There were several reasons for this (https://bernarddeacon.com/cornish-methodism-or-methodism-in-cornwall/the-causes-of-methodist-growth/). One of them was the rise of industrial (mainly mining) activity and its effect on the social fabric of Cornwall. Another was the fading appeal of the Anglican Church in the county. An interesting website (www.cornwallheritage.com/ertach-kernow-blogs/ertach-kernow-cornish-methodism-rise-decline/) noted that:

“The 18th century Anglican Church had greater concern for ensuring the support of wealthy and influential families rather than the poor agricultural labourers and miners that made up the vast majority of the Cornish population.”

Furthermore:

“The running of parishes were often ‘subcontracted out’ to curates and churchwardens with the clergy occupied in the major parishes and centres of religious influence. Some parishes were very large with the people spread thinly, only limited numbers living in the historic churchtowns surrounding the medieval churches. During the 18th century growth in mining, settlements gradually grew up around the sites of major mining activities leading to new villages and small, towns.”

These new settlements were often distant from the established Anglican churches, and travelling about the county was far from easy back in the 18th century.  The rise in industrial activity along with the corruption of the Anglican church in Cornwall, and the economic uncertainties caused by the fluctuations in the world’s prices for what was being mined by impoverished Cornish workers with large families, left a spiritual void that preachers like John Wesley helped to fill.

But what did John Wesley and Methodism have to offer the Cornish, and to gain them as followers? To start with, Methodism as practised by Wesley did not exclude anyone from gaining salvation. A reasonable sounding explanation for the appeal of Methodism to the Cornish miners and their families was provided by the historian David Luker:

“According to Luker, for the poor Methodism did not principally legitimate ‘respectable’ or middle class values; it legitimated the morality and structures of ‘traditional’ Cornish society. It upheld and validated the cottage as a socio-economic unit in the face of the changes being wreaked by an external modernity. This role is perhaps underlined by the fact that the majority of those who joined early Methodist societies in Cornwall were women. Overall, Methodism appealed to a conservatism of the commons, seemingly justifying a way of life increasingly under pressure from economic change, just as the rituals of the Anglican church appealed to the conservatism of the propertied classes. This is why Methodism grew earliest and fastest in those districts where mining was present, in large parishes, in areas of dispersed settlement out of the reach of a socially enfeebled gentry, and in ‘unimproved’ agricultural districts.” (https://bernarddeacon.com/cornish-methodism-or-methodism-in-cornwall/the-causes-of-methodist-growth/).

Cornwall was one of the counties of England that gave Methodism its greatest acceptance.

John Wesley discovered that the Cornish enjoyed hearing him (and other preachers) in the open-air. I am not sure the reason for this. During a visit to the small Cornish town of Indian Queens, we came across a ‘preaching pit’ (see https://adam-yamey-writes.com/2024/07/03/indian-queens-in-the-heart-of-cornwall/). Because mining activity undermined the land above it, occasionally the surface would collapse causing depressions, rather like quarries, in the landscape. At Indian Queens, one such hollow was remodelled to make it into an outdoor amphitheatre with tiered rows upon which people could stand or sit whilst they listened to a preacher speaking from a stone pulpit. While we were visiting this ‘pit’, a local historian told us about other surviving pits in Cornwall, at: St Newlyn East, Whitemoor, Tregonnig Hill, and Gwennap.

The pit at Gwennap (near Redruth) is one of the most interesting places we have visited in Cornwall. It is an inverted cone with circular tiers of seating cut into its side. Grass grows on the seating and the surface surrounding the pit. Almost perfectly geometrical, it rivals some of the stone stepwells I have seen in India. The present pit was constructed in early 1807, and is still used to hold Methodist services occasionally. What exists today is a remodelling of an earlier depression in the ground which John Wesley described (in September 1766) as being:

“… a round, green hollow, gently shelving down, about fifty feet deep; but I suppose it is two hundred one way, and near three hundred the other.”

He added that he considered it to be the finest natural amphitheatre in England. People gathered within it and around its edges, and because of its shape and acoustics, Wesley’s voice could be heard by the multitudes (often thousands of people) who had come to hear him. John Wesley made 18 visits to Gwennap Pit between 1762 and 1789. He used to stand just below the outer rim of the pit, and could be heard clearly by those within the pit and those around it, even some distance away. In his diary, he noted that on the 27th of August 1780:

“It was supposed twenty thousand people were assembled at the amphitheatre at Gwennap. And yet all, I was informed, could hear me distinctly, in the fair, calm evening”

Although the size of the congregations might not have been estimated accurately, there is no doubt that they were large and because of the acoustics of the pit, they were able to hear Wesley even if they were quite a distance from him.

From brewery to library in a small town in Cornwall

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THE TOWN OF Redruth in Cornwall was once the centre of a flourishing mining industry. Now, although it contains a few attractive buildings that remind the visitor of its heyday, it has a slightly forlorn feeling.  Amongst the many places in Cornwall that attract the visitors, Redruth is not highly rated. However, it has an attraction that is well worth visiting. Located at the western edge of the old town, it is called ‘Kresen Kernow’.

Kresen Kernow is the Cornish for ‘Cornwall Centre’. Recently opened (in 2019), it houses the historical archives of Cornwall, a library, and a café. What makes it so very special is its architecture and the ‘recycling’ of a former industrial building. This used to be the on the site of the Devenish Brewery, which had been the Cornish Brewery Company Ltd until 1934. In 1991, the brewery was sold to new operators and renamed the ‘Redruth Brewery’. This closed in 2004, and the edifice fell into decay, and was damaged by fire both in 2011 and 2013.

During the early 2000s, Cornwall Council began to consider having a new archive centre and local studies library. After much deliberation, the former Redruth Brewery was chosen as the site for a new home for Cornwall’s archives. In 2015, the derelict brewhouse was purchased by the council, and after the site was cleared and decontaminated, construction commenced. The building was chosen because despite the damage it had suffered, its shell was recognised as being of great beauty.  Making use of much of what was left of the original brewhouse, the architects of the Purcell Practice designed a new building. Pictures of the project before and after it was completed can be seen on their website (www.purcelluk.com/projects/kresen-kernow/).

Completed in 2019, the result is a beautiful blend of modern design and the remains of the original structure. With clean lines and plenty of natural illumination, the building consists of a harmonious combination of interconnecting spaces. On the ground floor, there is a spacious reception area in which there are exhibition display cases and an area for temporary exhibitions. There is also a café. Apart from public spaces, there are several for use of the staff of the archives. The first floor has a library and rooms where people can carry out research on archival material.

Behind the refurbished building, there is a courtyard in which there are sculptures of ‘ordinary’ people. They resemble a group of people who have suddenly frozen during conversations. They were created in 2015 by two artists from Glasgow: Craig Little and Blake Whitehead.

I hope that the presence of Kresen Kernow and the gradual recognition of the beautiful 19th century and earlier buildings in the town will help elevate Redruth to the ranks of places worth visiting in Cornwall.

Come to good in the countryside of Cornwall

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QUAKERS, MEMBERS OF The Society of Friends are Christians who believe that worship should rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit without the intercession of ordained ministers and without practising outward rituals. The Quakers worship one to one with God without any external ‘frills’. The Quaker movement was founded by George Fox (1624-1691) in about 1652.

Fox travelled around England, Europe, and North America, encouraging people to adopt his method of worship. In 1656, he came to Cornwall. While there, he was arrested for blasphemy several times. Nevertheless, many Cornish people were keen to hear what he had to say, and became his followers. Soon after his visit, groups of Quakers began to form in Cornwall. One of them began meeting in a farmhouse near to the hamlet called Come-to-Good in about 1653. Then, they began renting another building nearby. When this began to disintegrate in 1707, they raised money to build a new Meeting House: a simple thatched cottage, which was completed in about 1710. This humble edifice is still in use for worship meetings today. It stands in Come-to-Good.

The historicengland.org.uk website noted:

“The Meeting House was built in 1710 using funds’ raised from Quaker subscribers in 1707 and 1710. … Research by Mr Withers of Penelewey Barton shows that the farm, including the land on which the meeting house stands, was owned by James Mayo, a Quaker, and was later leased to Vyvian, whose name with the date 1716 is scratched on one of the window panes at the farmhouse. In spite of the C20 porch on the west end, this little meeting house has been remarkably unaltered since the C19 and still retains much of its original character and fabric.”

We visited the Meeting House in early July 2024. Sadly, we could not enter it because it was locked up. So, we were unable to see its simple interior, which has remained almost unchanged since the place was first used. From the road, the Meeting House looks much as it would have when it was built. A small extension with an entrance hall, kitchen, and toilets was added to the rear of the old building in 1967.

There is a small Quaker burial ground near the Meeting House, but we did not notice it because the burial mounds were levelled in the 1940s. One of the people buried there is a Quaker preacher, Catherine Payton Phillips (1727-1794), who, like George Fox, travelled in the British Isles, Continental Europe, and the North American colonies.  In 1772, she married William Phillips, and lived with him in his home in Redruth (not far from Come-to-Good).

As for the hamlet’s name, Come-to-Good, it is currently believed that the place was only called that after the formation of the local Quaker’s meeting group. Although it is only a small building, which hardly rivals some of Cornwall’s other attractions, it is a pleasant, peaceful place to visit in the heart of the Cornish countryside.