Gwennap, Cornwall

Gwennap Pit

Gwennap Pit is a natural open-air amphitheatre in which the Methodist founder John Wesley preached in the latter half of the 18th Century. The pit was naturally formed by mining subsidence. During Wesley's time Gwenapp was the greatest copper mining area in Cornwall and was described as the ‘richest square mile to be found anywhere on the earth'. Wesley didn't come to Cornwall to speak to the wealthy, but to the poor and ordinary working people.

Wesley preached at Gwennap Pit on eighteen occassions between 1776 and 1789, always on a Sunday. On the first of these, he was unable to stand in his usual spot in Gwennap village due to high winds and wrote in his diary;

'... but a small distance was a hollow capable of containing many thousands of people. I stood on one side of this ampitheatre towards the top and with people beneath on all sides, I enlarged on those words in the gospel for the day Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see....hear the things that ye hear.'

In 1806, in memory of Wesley, local people excavated the pit and terraced it to provide rows of seating in the form that you see here. A Whit-Monday service has been held here every year since, in recent years on the Spring Bank Holiday.

A visitors' centre was opened in 1991 and is staffed by volunteers from May until the end of September.