From Thomas Heard at `Mulpha', Stratton, Cornwall, to Lewis Court.
In this week's M R he sees that Court is writing a history of the Bible Christians. He is sending one or two items which might be of interest.
Bush is an hamlet about one mile from Stratton on the Bideford road. The chapel was built in 1869 on land given by Samuel Knight senior of Towskill? Mill. There are still some people here who remember its opening and what a wonderful day they had. Previous to the chapel's erection, services were held in a `Cob?' cottage. Edward Knight was baptized in the cottage and Mary Convesson? interred there. Tommy Evans was among those who led worship in the cottage.
In the early days of the present chapel an old fisherman called Richard Headdon walked from Clovelly to Bush where he preached and then walked home again - a distance of eighteen miles each way.
Bush is still `full with fire, Sunday School fairly full every Sunday…'.
Heard and his late wife worshipped there for fifty-five years. She died last month at the age of eighty-seven - he is eighty three. They had a wonderful life together.
When is Court coming this way again? He hears that Court is planning to write about the battle of Stamford Hill. If this is the case, he would be pleased to lend him material from his collection of material about the history of Stratton.
Enclosed with the above is a detailed manuscript account of the history of the Bible Christian Connexion in the area of Bush near Stratton, Cornwall.