We spent two nights north of Bodmin Moors in a lovely farmhouse Airbnb, reached by one of those lanes which require you to reverse about a kilometre if you see oncoming traffic. The desolate moors hold history, hope and stark beauty.
The 800-year-old Church of St Nonna is known as the Cathedral of the Moor. It is simple in form and beautiful. Our (fairly useless without the internet) guidebook had mentioned that John Wesley’s Cottage was close by, so we thought we’d inquire about it here. When we arrived at 3.00pm the church was locked but we were informed by some other tourists that the custodian was on the way from the next town. They had phoned the parish after making a special trip to see the church, and their interest in old churches was evident. After looking around the church we asked about the John Wesley Cottage. The custodian had a brochure but said we would probably be out of luck because it closed at 4 pm. As the cottage was indeed close, we thought we’d at least go and see the outside. Derek attended a Uniting Church with Methodist origin at the time we first met, and we have both enjoyed on occasion watching the Wesley Mission TV program with Rev Keith Garner. As we stood outside (well after 4pm), a gentleman came out and invited us in for a cup of tea, cake and conversation. Despite our concern for their staying late on the job, it was difficult to get away and we were given a full tour of the tiny cottage and an enthusiastic account of the history of Methodism in Cornwall. John Wesley and other itinerant preachers received free hospitality at Trewint Cottage (as it was then known) on many occasions, from 1743. At this time many poor people in Cornwall felt excluded from traditional churches. Wesley spoke in the open air, often to thousands of miners, fishermen and farmers who lived in poverty. His message that all were acceptable to God regardless of wealth or status, simply by trusting in Jesus’ death on their behalf, was eagerly accepted. In Cornwall (along with North Wales), Methodism became the religion of the masses, with more attendees than at Anglican churches. If you’ve watched the Poldark series, you will know the hardships faced by the uneducated and poor adherents of Methodism to build their own church or even attend existing Anglican churches. I know (sort of) that Poldark is fiction but the events in the series are consistent with the history of Methodism as related during our fascinating cup of tea and cake. John Wesley also started health and literacy programs in Cornwall and at the end of our special tour, we were invited to watch a video about how these issues are being tackled by the Methodist church today. To our amusement, it was presented by Keith Garner and we said we would watch it on our return to Australia.