Services: Every Sunday at 10.45am each week, - coffee served afterwards.
2nd Sunday at 6pm - Reflective or Healing Service
Activities:
- 3rd Monday (evening) of each month - Ladies Group
- Every Tuesday, 9.45-11.45am - Toddlers
- 4th Tuesday of each month, 2.00pm - Informal Fellowship
- 3rd Wednesday of each month, 12.30 - Men's Luncheon Club
- Thursday Prayer Group, 9.30-10.00am
- Monthly Saturday coffee morning, 10.00-11.45am
- Sunday Housegroup meets fortnightly 7-9pm
Location: The town of Keswick lies in the heart of the Lake District National Park, and is well known to Lakeland tourists, and as the venue for the Keswick Convention. Every year church members provide lunches in the first two weeks of the Convention. If you are coming for the Convention, why not visit? The Methodist Church is on Southey Street, within a short walking distance of the town's shops, postcode CA12 4HH.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, first visited Keswick in 1749, as he travelled east from Whitehaven. There is no record that he preached there at that time, nor at any other time. Wesleyan Methodism in Keswick began towards the end of the 18th century, meeting in houses or hired rooms to begin with. Influential in this early period was a Penrith saddler, Robert Gates. Keswick was having regular services by 1806, when it was featured on the Brough Circuit Plan. The first chapel was built in 1814 in a small yard off Main Street at a cost of £331 10s.
The first Wesleyan minister to live in Keswick was Rev Edmund Warters in 1835. By 1838 there were calls to remove the minister to support the newly-formed Workington Circuit, on the basis that 'he will be surrounded by plenty of work, and do something worth living for'. Slowly the cause picked up momentum.
A new church, the present one on Southey Street, was opened in 1863, at a cost of £1205. This was extended when a Sunday School was added in the late 1870s. The Church was also enlarged and remodelled in 1909.
Keswick benefited from the migration from Whitehaven of rich Wesleyan families such as the Randles and Walkers. The town was also helped by new railway links and the growing tourism business.