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Introduction
In the mid-19th century, at around the time the Methodist Church in
Pett was established, the area was notorious for
smuggling. The
local
coastguards were quite inept at dealing with the smugglers, mostly
preferring to turn a blind eye. So, coastguards from
the distant West Country were drafted in to deal more vigorously with illicit
trading.
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Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark;
Brandy for the parson,
Baccy for the clerk,
Laces for a lady, letters for the spy.
So watch the wall, my darling,
While the gentlemen go by!
(Excerpt from
Rudyard Kipling’s Smugglers’ Song)
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Many of
these new arrivals belonged to the Bible Christian
movement. The first Bible Christian evangelist known of
in Pett was a Cornish coastguard named Matthews,
stationed
at Cliff End. He was a fervent member of the
Bible Christian Methodist Connexion, an offshoot of the parent
church, and, with the help of others, built a strong group of enthusiastic
worshippers.
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