Wesley in the Cotswolds

I found this here.

It is unsurprising, given his relentless touring, that John Wesley should have visited the Cotswolds. He is believed to have visited Winchcombe twice, in 1755 and again in 1779, when he stayed at a medieval house on the High Street. This house, now a hotel, is named the Wesley House Hotel in honour of its former resident. ... Winchcombe was a stopover for Wesley en route to Tewkesbury, so he possibly never addressed locals here; but it would not have been impossible that he did.

He certainly visited Stow-on-the-Wold [Stow is 5 miles from Bourton], some 30 years earlier. On that occasion, in 1767 (Sep 28), he stayed at the Kings Arms, and recorded that the Stow folks had been a "very dull, quiet congregation". It took another 30 years for Methodism to properly arrive in the town – significantly, with the arrival of preachers from Winchcombe. The Wesleyan Methodist chapel on Sheep Street wasn’t built until the mid 19th century.

Wesley is also said to have preached at Buckland, a village near Broadway, using the parish church of St Michael as his base. Also near Broadway is Stanton, where John and his brother Charles regularly visited, due to links with Lionel and Robert Kirkham, who both had spells as village rector in the eighteenth century. Given the Cotswolds’ proximity to cities such as Bristol, Bath and Oxford, all visited by Wesley, it is logical for him to have stayed at places around the region. Travelling by horse meant regular stops would have been needed on the way to visit his congregations, and the Cotswolds were home to comfortable lodgings and sympathetic residents.