Isbell Cottage stands on the old main road through Trewint, directly on the historic route that carried travellers, packhorse trains and later stage‑coaches into Cornwall. Before the A30 bypass, every journey west crossed the county boundary at Launceston and climbed steadily towards Bodmin Moor. The moor was notoriously difficult in poor weather, and Trewint — exposed, windswept and without an inn — became a natural stopping point. It was here, on 29th August 1743, that two Methodist missionaries, John Downes and John Nelson, arrived after travelling since early morning with only one horse between them.
The men were hungry, tired and told there was no lodging in the village. Downes decided to ask for help, believing that “God would provide”. They knocked at the cottage of Digory and Elizabeth Isbell, local stonemasons who attended the church at Altarnun. Elizabeth offered bread, cheese, bacon and hay for the horse. The missionaries prayed with her before leaving, and she later told her husband that it was possible to be “converted and unaware”. Nelson returned weeks later when overtaken by darkness and bad weather. Elizabeth again welcomed him, washed his linen, provided supper and a bed, and joined him in hymn‑singing and prayer. The next morning Digory gathered 300 people at 7 a.m. to hear Nelson preach.
Moved by these encounters, the Isbells opened their home to travelling preachers. Although there were no proper roads across Bodmin Moor — only rough tracks — the cottage lay on the main route from London to Penzance, and soon became a recognised stopping place for Methodist missionaries. Inspired by the story of the prophet Elisha and the Shunamite woman, Digory built a small extension at the rear of the cottage: the “Prophet’s Chamber”. Furnished with a bed, table, chair and lamp, it provided a simple resting place for itinerant preachers. A reading desk was later added, and the room became one of the earliest dedicated Methodist preaching spaces in Cornwall.
John Wesley himself visited at least six times. His first recorded visit was on 2nd April 1744, when he preached to a crowd too large for the cottage to contain. He wrote of walking through ploughed and waterlogged paths the next morning as he continued towards Camelford. He returned a fortnight later, and again on 25th June 1744, remarking on the “new flame of love and awakening in Cornwall… from Trewint to the sea.” His later visits in 1747 and 1762 continued to strengthen the Methodist societies that were forming across East Cornwall.
The Isbell and Burnard families were long associated with stonemasonry. Digory and Elizabeth married in 1739 and lived their entire married lives in the cottage. Their son James Isbell (1756–1840) became the builder in charge of construction at Dartmoor Prison. Other family members included sculptors Robert Isbell of Stonehouse and James Isbell of Truro, who worked on churches across Cornwall and Devon. The most notable was Nevill Northey Burnard (1818–78), whose early work includes a sculpture of John Wesley’s head above the old chapel door at Altarnun. A fine bust of Burnard is displayed at the cottage today.
After Methodism took root in Cornwall, one of the local societies met in the Isbells’ cottage. Trewint appears on the first Methodist preaching plan for Cornwall in 1748 as a principal centre in East Cornwall. The movement faced opposition: a mob once threatened to pull down the cottage if preaching continued, and at Lewannick and Tredudock the Anglican vicar threatened eviction for anyone hosting Methodist meetings. By the end of the eighteenth century the society had moved to the new chapel at Altarnun, built in 1795, and the cottage ceased to appear on the plan until its re‑designation in 1990.
By 1947 the cottage had deteriorated to the point of possible demolition. It was saved by T. A. Judd of the Methodist Church and by Stanley Sowton, a retired lay administrator who moved into the cottage and oversaw its restoration. A caretaker’s flat was added, the Lower Chamber opened to visitors, and the Upper Chamber restored to its original simplicity. The Methodist Union held a celebration here in 1932, and the bicentenary of Wesley’s conversion was marked in 1938.
Further developments followed. The Peace Garden was created opposite the cottage in memory of John Nelson’s son, killed in the First World War, and includes a sundial replica marking the direction of the first Methodist meetings in 1743. The Prayer Garden behind the cottage was opened in 2013. Wesley Day is still commemorated annually, often with a re‑enactment of the arrival of John Wesley at the cottage.
Today, Isbell Cottage stands as one of the most important early Methodist sites in Cornwall. The Prophet’s Chamber — regarded as the smallest Methodist preaching house in the world — preserves the memory of the Isbells’ hospitality and the movement that passed through their door on its way across Bodmin Moor.
