Keswick Convention: Celebrating 150 years

The Keswick Convention will ‘prioritise the emerging generation,’ its Chief Executive says, as the event prepares to celebrate its landmark 150th anniversary this summer.

The convention was started in 1875 by Canon Thomas Harford-Battersby and Robert Wilson and was attended by three or four hundred people. Now, around 12,000 travel to the small Lake District town which has a population of just over 5,000.

The convention, well-known for its large tents, erected its first marquee in 1901, and started operating with a second week in 1969, before adding a third in 2001.