A Brief Survey of Cornwall

During the past twenty to twenty-five years many servants of Christ have visited Cornwall with Tents and Caravans but the work on the whole has proved very hard and discouraging. The Assemblies are few and small, and through various causes some have been closed, but, on the other hand, there have been encouraging signs of progress. For some years believers met in a drawing room in the village of Charlestown, near St. Austell, and later in the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Wood, at Slades, St. Austell.

By 1924 numbers had so increased, and a Sunday School had been formed, that it was decided to build a hall and the following year the Seymour Gospel Hall was opened at Slades. A few years ago a new Hall was opened at Falmouth and there is also an Assembly which meets in a hired hall at Penzance. In addition there are a few gatherings in private houses here and there. During quite recent months two new Assemblies have been started. Believers at St. Ives obtained a Hall early in the year, with accommodation for about 100. In addition to the Sunday School, about 20 gather to remember the Lord, and about 60 attend the Gospel service. More recently the friends at Newquay, who had been meeting in a private house, secured a splendid Hall in the centre of the town. Twenty-one remembered the Lord on the first Sunday and a good company gathered for the Gospel meeting. Recently the believers at St. Ives, Newquay and Penzance arranged a United Bank Holiday Conference at Penzance. Unfortunately I was not free to go, but Mr. A. J. Townsend, of Exeter, gave appreciated help and I hear from various friends that they had a most profitable time. But Cornwall is a large county and much remains to be done. Nevertheless these signs of progress encourage the hope that with the Lord’s blessing the labours of past years will yet bear abundant fruit.