Mapping Methodism – Redruth Fore Street Open Air meetings

This profile has been compiled by Jo Lewis and Tony Mansell.

 

From 1743: John and Charles Wesley were frequent visitors to Redruth.

If we walk up Fore Street towards the East End of the town we find ourselves entering one of the heartlands of Cornish Methodism. The Wesley’s had first come to West Cornwall in the early 1740s, attracted by the large population of miners and a rather dozy local Anglican establishment. In 1746 Charles Wesley, and a year later his more famous brother, visited Redruth and preached their evangelical brand of religion to the people in the open air. http://www.redruth-tc.gov.uk/History_3324.aspx

These open-air meetings are traditionally supposed to have been centred on the old Market House in Fore Street or at Bank House in West End, where Wesley mounted the steps to address the populace. (Bank House has been rebuilt since the 18th century when it had a more commanding position over the bottom of West End.) The Wesleys’ Methodism soon caught on and, by the 1750s, it was reported that “thousands” were attending open air meetings in Fore Street, in addition to the regular huge gatherings at Gwennap Pit (see Gwennap Pit profile), just a mile or two to the south east of the town, where no doubt many townsfolk joined in. http://www.redruth-tc.gov.uk/History_3324.aspx

19^th June 1745: John Wesley’s first visit to Redruth when he wrote that they were set upon by forty or fifty ruffians, which included being pelted with stones. https://methodist121.org.uk/chapels/rmc/rmc-history/#:~:text=Built%20in%201826%20as%20Redruth%20Wesley%2C%20in%201975,the%20town%20which%20was%20probably%20formed%20in%201743

1760: John Wesley wrote of quite a change: “So is this roughest become one of the quietest towns in England”. https://methodist121.org.uk/chapels/rmc/rmc-history/#:~:text=Built%20in%201826%20as%20Redruth%20Wesley%2C%20in%201975,the%20town%20which%20was%20probably%20formed%20in%201743.

By 1765 there was a Methodist preaching house but prior to this, the meetings had been in the open air.