LIKE many more discerning folk, John Wesley seemed to be awfully fond of Osmotherley - stone built and solitary at the foot of the North Yorkshire moors - and Ossie, in turn, liked him. The great traveller, said to have covered more than 5,000 miles a year on horseback and to have paid more tolls than any man then alive, visited the village 18 times in 40 years, on the first occasion at the behest of a Franciscan who'd travelled to Newcastle to urge his attendance.

It was April 15, 1745. After preaching at "the inn" in Northallerton, Wesley records that he ordered the horses immediately to be made ready and arrived in Osmotherley - six or seven miles to the east - between 9 and 10pm.

"It was about an hour before the people gathered and after 12 before I lay down, yet (through the blessing of God) I felt no weariness," his journal notes.

At 5am, Wesley's usual hour, he was again preaching to a large village congregation - "part of whom," the journal added, "had been up all night for fear they would not wake in the morning". (Well, you knew what he meant.)

Many, said Wesley, were or had been Roman Catholics. "How wise are the ways of God. How am I brought, without any care or thought of mine, into the centre of Papists in Yorkshire!"

Papists may not have been the only problem, however. England, notes a recent Methodist pamphlet, was in a sorry state - "drunkenness was widespread, behaviour and morals lax, even the church corrupt and worldly. It was small wonder that many were offended when John Wesley preached."

The visits continued. Wesley - an Anglican priest - at first offered a platform in the 13th century St Peter's parish church. By 1747, however, the rector - identified only as "Mr D" - had been "vehemently attacked by the neighbouring clergy and gentry". To save further difficulty, Wesley preached from a flat stone that had served as a market stall and is still visible by the Market Cross.

Still they listened, still hearts were won. "At seven, I preached in the street at Osmotherley," he wrote on August 16, 1748. "It rained almost all the time, but none went away."

Veritably, the wizard of Ossie.

Roof at last over his head, the Methodist church was opened in 1754, its 250th anniversary celebrations continuing tomorrow with an ecumenical pilgrimage from the Market Cross to the Lady Chapel of Mount Grace, a Catholic shrine for 600 years.

The short pilgrimage and service will be led by Mark Topping, a Wesley impersonator. "We hope people will come from all over," says Mary Priest, one of the organisers. "We don't make any great claim for the church, but it's obviously one of the oldest Methodist chapels in the world."

Half hidden, the chapel is up what Miss Priest (born in Thornaby, 40 years in Osmotherley) calls a passage, what local Methodist minister Rachel Parkinson (who's from Sheffield) calls a ginnel and what other Yorkshire folk might suppose to be a snicket.

Since 18th century folk were smaller in size - though not, of course, in stature - the door's a mind-your-head job.

Wesley was smaller yet, a Zacchaeus among evangelists. The little stool on which he stood to see what he (and others) were up to is still kept by the altar at Osmotherley.

In 1864, the congregation had moved to a larger chapel up the hill, retaining the original as a school room. The 1754 chapel resumed its original purpose 27 years ago, when the larger building was converted into a house.

A bust and a pot model of Wesley preaching sit on the window sill of the simple, attractive, internally modernised little church. Outside, like that cobbled passage of time in which a motionless Jack Russell stands silent sentry, it's little changed.

The 6.30pm service is led by the Rev Dr Eric Nelson, a retired United Reformed Church minister from Northallerton - formerly in Newcastle - who's on the Methodist "local preachers" rota and who kindly offers the column a copy of his sermon.

Only the present Bishop of Durham usually does that. "A little light bedtime reading," says Dr Nelson, and essays a gentle, Irish smile. His address is on preparing for pilgrimage. "The fact that I am entrusted with leading worship here from time to time in the Methodist circuit is testament to great ecumenical advances," he tells them.

Osmotherley's three churches - Anglican, Methodist, Roman Catholic - signed a formal partnership committing themselves to closer union in 1995, on the 250th anniversary of Wesley's first visit.

Fourteen are present, all welcoming. Miss Priest, retired village head teacher, is steward, organist and historian. "Anyone who thinks Osmotherley is a sleepy hollow is sadly mistaken," she says. "We are great on our traditions here."

The hymns are tremendous - Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer, He Who Would Valiant Be, St Patrick's Breastplate. We finish with the most glorious of all Charles Wesley's compositions, O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing. They'll hope for a good few hundred on Sunday.

* Accompanied by appropriate readings from Wesley's journal and led by Mark Topping, warden of New House in Bristol, the pilgrimage begins at Osmotherley Market Cross at 2.30pm tomorrow and will be at the Lady Chapel at 3.30pm. A bus will be provided for the infirm.

Chronicle of a

challenging year

THE unique little Methodist church at Newbiggin-in-Teesdale, opened in 1759 and said to be the oldest in the world in continuous use, has produced a splendid and well-illustrated chronicle of 2003, a year of challenges accepted.

Written by Mary Lewis, steward and stalwart, "O What Rich Supplies" - a line from a familiar Methodist hymn - tells how they tackled major structural faults on the road to becoming a community and visitor resource, as well as a worshipping church. The book costs £3.50.

The roof's restored but work, like the chapel, continues. Today at 2.30pmhere's a "Songs of Praise" afternoon, all most welcome, at which they'll probably raise the roof all over again.

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