Despite many of the main characters being Methodists, Clovelly Church appears in several key scenes in Barefoot on the Cobbles. It is here that the incident involving the suffragettes begins and here that we witness two funerals. On New Year’s Day, All Saints was also the venue of the annual ‘Club Service’, attended by members of the Friendly Societies.

This twelfth century church is at the top of the hill, away from the cobbles and close to Clovelly Court. There had been a timber-built place of worship on this site before the current church was built. The impressive roof is part of the renovations that took place in the fourteenth century. Further additions took place in later centuries.

‘Leonard shifted his body to gain himself a few extra inches of space and clutched the slightly damp, well-worn hymn book. The distinctive smell of steaming wet worsted pervaded the air. Reverend Simkin sonorously announced the first hymn. Tom Finch, during the week the rector’s gardener but proud organist on a Sunday, began to play, with more regard to volume than melody. Oh God our Help in Ages Past, comfortably recognisable to Methodists and Anglicans alike.’

Barefoot on the Cobbles will be published on 17 November 2018. More information about the novel can be found here. Copies will be available at various events in the weeks following the launch or can be pre-ordered from Blue Poppy Publishing or the author.