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Gwennap Pit Wedding

Kynsa demmedhyans ena Gwennap Pit

Current affairs 1965 1 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for South West Film and Television Archive

Overview

A Cornish couple Ronald Veale and Diana Blackmore join in holy matrimony at Busveal Chapel in the grounds of Gwennap Pit near Redruth. This is the first ever wedding to take place in the chapel. Built in 1836 and owned by the Methodist Church since 2001 it is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.

The father of Methodism John Wesley preached at the pit eighteen times between 1762 and 1789 to large crowds of mining families. Wesley’s Pulpit is still used annually for an outdoor service of commemoration. The Pit came about after a hollow appeared in the mid-eighteenth century caused by subsidence due to mining and after Wesley’s death it became circular with turf seats and is now an open-air amphitheatre. Gwennap Parish was once considered the richest copper mining district in Cornwall but Gwennap Pit closed after the copper market collapse in the 1860s when no tin deposits were found.