
Epworth Old Rectory
With a National Art Pass you get
The more you see, the more we do.
The National Art Pass lets you enjoy free entry to hundreds of museums, galleries and historic places across the UK, while raising money to support them.
Explore the childhood home of John and Charles Wesley, pioneering evangelists and founders of the Methodist movement.
Epworth Old Rectory is a Grade I listed house, once home to the Wesley family. The sons of a cleric, John and Charles Wesley spent their formative years here; tours of the house reveal their childhood years and the characters within the large Wesley clan.
A brick and stone construction in Queen Anne style, the rectory was built when its thatch and timber predecessor burned down. The family only narrowly escaped the blaze, with a human chain forming to lift John from an upstairs window just before the roof caved in.
Opened as a museum in 1957, the rectory now displays important artefacts including portraits and letters, and is surrounded by gardens including a Physic Garden, based on John Wesley's book of home remedies, and a walled garden that hosts fairs and outdoor theatre in the summer.