GWENNAP Pit, the amphitheatre near Redruth, owes its fame to Methodist founder John Wesley.

Between 1762 and 1789, Wesley preached there on 18 occasions and it became one of his favourite outdoor preaching places.

So it was appropriate that the actor Mark Topping should stop off at Gwennap Pit during his current national tour with his one man show, An Evening With John Wesley.

Although he did not perform his drama at the pit, Mr Topping, as Mr Wesley, did share an open-air service there with the Reverend Steve Wild, chairman of the Cornwall Methodist District.

On an overcast Sunday afternoon with the sun bursting through from time to time, a congregation of around 170 sat in the pit to hear, through Mark Topping, some words from John Wesley.

Attending the event were visitors from around the world, including Australia, India, South Africa and the US, and from many parts of Britain, including Northern Ireland. They sang the hymns of Charles Wesley, brother of John, and gleaned something of the early days of Methodism and of John Wesley.

They were challenged by a sermon of Wesley's, just as hundreds of Cornish miners and their families had been all those years ago.

Once the custodian of the New Room in Bristol, the oldest Methodist chapel in the world, Mark Topping has developed several dramas on the lives of Methodist founders John and Charles Wesley.

During an interview with Mr Wild, Mark revealed that at first he found John Wesley "rather austere, grumpy, a cold fish". But in his reading and research he had discovered "a more warm man, a raconteur and great mimic who would often have his companions in fits of laughter".

The highlight of the afternoon was when Mark delivered one of John Wesley's sermons, standing on the very spot at Gwennap Pit that the Methodist founder is believed to have preached from. During the sermon something occurred that would have been alien to Mr Wesley. A light aircraft flew overhead, threatening to drown the words. With quick wit, Mark said: "I pause for a moment to let this strange phenomenon pass. Perhaps someone will enlighten me afterwards."

It was on September 5, 1762, that John Wesley first preached at the Pit. He recorded in is journal: "The wind was so high at five that I could not stand in the usual place at Gwennap. But at a small distance was a hollow capable of containing many thousand people. I stood on the side of this amphitheatre toward the top."

In the winter of 1806-7 the pit was remodelled as a memorial to John Wesley. A band of miners and their helpers cleared the old site, redirected the lane which once crossed it and capped the open mine shafts in the vicinity. A bank of earth was piled up in a great circle and a nine-foot wall built to enclose it. Gaps were created in two places on either side to form entrances to the new area within it.

Richard Thomas, a land surveyor and civil engineer of Falmouth, described the pit in 1827 as "made like an amphitheatre with turf seats extending quite round: its diameter is about 125 feet and the depth of the centre is about 20 feet below the circumference".

The little Busveal Chapel, adjoining the pit, was built in 1836 and in 1991, a visitor centre was opened.

Long a place of pilgrimage for Methodists from all over the world, Gwennap Pit is now part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining World Heritage Site. It is set to become an important stopping-off point for those tracing the history of Cornish mining.

This poses a challenge to the Gwennap Pit management committee, which is striving to present the stories of Cornish Methodism and mining in effective ways. Had John Wesley not been forced to find an alternative place to preach on that windy Sunday afternoon in 1762, Gwennap Pit would probably have been long forgotten.