England’s most westerly county, Cornwall, is a tourist hotspot in the summer months and it’s often associated with picturesque harbours, beaches, surfing and cream teas. However, there is more to this remote part of England than meets the eye. For a start, it is one of the most economically deprived English counties and many of its inhabitants suffer from loneliness, isolation, disaffection and poverty. Looe, a seaside town twenty miles west of Plymouth, has all the sandy beaches, rock pools and fishing boats a tourist would expect, but behind the pretty shop fronts, not everything is as it seems.
Barney and Sara Barron used to live on a large estate on the outskirts of Portsmouth. They know all about urban deprivation as the thirty thousand people who called the estate home found themselves in one of the most economically deprived areas of the UK. Barney’s role within Urban Expression required him to carry out research into rural poverty in coastal towns and he remembers the epiphany he had on a train to Penzance.
“I was looking out of the window at the stunning scenery around St Michael’s Mount, when I remembered the stories I’d heard about Cornwall having some of the poorest estates in the country. That knowledge didn’t sit well with the sparkling blue sea and sandy beaches image of the county.”
Barney and Sara were up for a new adventure and waited on God for some more details. They decided to visit Looe. Paddling on the crowded beach, Sara heard her name being called and to her amazement, saw old friends from Birmingham had chosen the same day and the same beach.
“It was no coincidence. We felt that this was a safe space and that God was present and that was the beginning of our journey. The town has a mixed demographic with some very wealthy areas masking hidden poverty and homelessness.”
The Barrons moved to Looe in May 2018 and spent a year as guests there, getting to know people in their community and waiting on God. Six years on, they’ve set up a charity called Boundless Trust which began with youth work and has expanded into children’s work, a food bank, community meals, befriending and a faith community.
“We rent our building from the Harbour Commission in the centre of town, above a fish shop. There is a fairly strong aroma up here some days, and the people who deliver the food for the community fridge sometimes complain about the steep stairs, but God has been good and given us exactly the right space.”
Sara and Barney offer a place of welcome two days a week. They host the community fridge, there is a computer room/office space and a small kitchen, a community fund for those in crisis and they work with local restaurants who cook hot food delivered by volunteers for Looe Community Meals.
Barney and Sara are clear on why God sent them to Cornwall.
“Like many other Cornish communities, there are many isolated and lonely people in Looe. One of the issues is that there are only two churches here, the Methodists with a faithful but tiny and ageing congregation, and the parish church which is one of six in the benefice. Part of our broader work here is to make Jesus known in the community as we offer a safe and welcoming space for everyone to come to. However, we spent time as missional listeners rather than leaping in and offering our services the minute we arrived. When the Covid restrictions lifted, the town council asked us to partner with them because we’d taken the time to build credibility and trust. We now work with fifty volunteers – Boundless Trust is a catalyst for change.”
There are so many stories which have come from Barney and Sara’s time in Looe, built on the benefit of listening and taking opportunities as and when they arise. Sara remembers a time when she took the time to listen.
“A friend who always comes to the Easter sunrise service invited me out for a drive. She told me that though she has left the church long ago with good reason, she hadn’t walked away from God. In getting to know us, she had found a gentler way to be with God. That confirmed our belief that we need to be available and let God move.”
Three hundred and thirty five miles northwest in the coastal Norfolk village of Ingoldisthorpe, Sam and Suzie Abramian and their ten year old son Josh live looking out over the wide expanse of the Wash. They moved from nearby Hunstanton in 2020.
Sam was the minister of a Baptist/URC church in the town for six and a half years while Suzie stayed at home with Josh and led the children’s work and worship at church. When they began to feel it was time to move, God worked a major miracle of housing provision for them and they were able to rent a cottage on a working farm in the centre of Ingoldisthorpe next to the primary school. They moved in the day before the first lockdown! They’re daily blessed by the miles of beautiful walks around and about them. As they’ve got to know their community, they’ve felt God leading them to stay there. Earlier last year, Sam and Suzie were able to buy their first home together. It needed a lot of renovation, but their friends have been so helpful
The Abramians spend a lot of their time outdoors. Northwest Norfolk is a paradise for walkers, runners and cyclists and ten year old Josh is a keen footballer. His parents are very involved in their local football club where relationships have deepened and honest conversations have been had.
North Norfolk is beautiful and remote, but it has become popular with second homers which has led to challenges for local people. Affordable housing is scarce, both in the rental and purchase market, largely due to the disproportionate number of holiday lets and second homes which have pushed up the average house prices and reduced the number of permanent lets for locals. Cuts have led to restricted resources available through support agencies, and those who need help are forced to travel to a nearby large town. Isolation and loneliness are also major issues in this part of the county.
Like the Barrons in Looe, Sam and Suzie have allowed friendships to develop naturally and have learned what it means to live closely with others, allow themselves to be vulnerable and ask for help when it’s needed. They are generous with their time and life experiences, and that in turn has built the trust in their relationships. Conversations and opportunities for prayer have come, sometimes unexpectedly, because others are seeing how they live all of their lives, not just small parts of them.
While Sara had an unexpected faith chat in the car, Sam and Suzie found themselves talking deep into the night with friends around a bonfire in the garden. They had all worked together on the house renovation and grown closer as a result. Questions about faith were a natural part of the conversation and were a real joy to Sam and Suzie.
“We have been blessed to have the time and space to be in the community and have learnt to allow conversations about faith to come from these relationships, often being initiated by others. This has happened in so many ways and at different times. Sam found himself chatting with a colleague who had had some spiritual experiences and wanted to talk about them. It has also been interesting how some of Sam’s paid work for funerals and now as a hospital chaplain, has been so missional and led to many conversations. God is clearly at work in people’s lives and stirring a desire in people to talk and ask about Christianity and Jesus. We’re learning that we’re not necessarily called to initiate an event or programme for this but to hold back, listen and be ready for where God is causing that desire to bubble up.”
First published in MOSAIC Issue 15, January - April 2025
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