History
The foundation stone for the Wesleyan Church, Penrith (now Penrith Methodist Church) was laid on 28 June 1872 by John Crone, a leading benefactor who gave £1800 towards the £8,000 cost of building it. The architect was George Woodhouse of Bolton-le-Moors. The Church was opened for worship on 2 October 1873 by the Rev. George T. Perks, the President of the Methodist Conference. It replaced the former Chapel at Sandgate Head (opened in 1815) which was sold for £700 and later became a Primitive Methodist Church. The Superintendent Minister at the time was Rev. D. Pearson. In 1967 Sandgate Head Church closed and the two societies joined together at Wordsworth Street forming Penrith Methodist Church.
In 1897 the Wordsworth Hall Sunday School was added for a cost of £1760. This development meant the caretaker’s house was removed. The Hall was used as an auxiliary Red Cross military hospital during the 1914-18 World War and as temporary accommodation for Newcastle Royal Grammar School during the 1939-45 World War.
At the Jubilee Celebrations in October 1923 both the President of the Methodist Conference, the Rev. T. Ferrier Hulme and the Lord Bishop of Carlisle, the Rev. Dr. H.H. Williams preached.
Redevelopment work involving the creation of Crush Hall and a new sanctuary area together with a reduction in seating by the closure of the gallery area was completed in December 1972 in time for the centenary celebrations on 30 September 1973.
In 1993 a feasibility study was undertaken to see how the Church could meet the Mission needs at that time. This resulted in a major re-development taking place between November 1995 and November 1996 at a cost of £768,000. The formerly separated Wordsworth Hall and Church were linked together to form one building, the seating in the gallery was opened for use again and the pews on the ground floor were replaced with chairs. The sanctuary area was considerably extended to facilitate flexible use of the area both for worship and appropriate secular events. Modern heating and lighting systems were installed and the pipe organ was replaced with an Ahlborn pipe less organ. The pipe organ is now located in a Roman Catholic Church in Nemencine in Lithuania. Various further improvements have occurred since 1996 including the introduction of large screen projection facilities and smaller screens for use by the congregation and persons using the sanctuary area during services.
Following the 1995/96 scheme the use of the premises increased significantly and in 2001 advice was sought as to whether an additional floor could be installed in Wordsworth Hall. The Structural Engineers advised that this was not feasible. Within a fortnight of receiving that news it was learned that the Woodland House Hotel, immediately opposite the Church, was to be sold and the property was acquired before it went on the open market. Work commenced in January 2002 on its conversion to provide additional mainly Youth orientated space on the lower two floors and accommodation on the upper floor for a Youth Worker. Much of the work was undertaken by volunteers meaning that the cost of acquiring the premises and conversion was £310,000. A full time youth worker moved into the property and commenced work in September 2003. At that time parts of the property were occupied by two local charities but by August 2007 the whole of the premises were devoted to Church use.
In addition to Wordsworth Street and Sandgate Head, Methodist places of worship were also located at Crown Terrace, Arthur Street and Scotland Road, Penrith. Early Penrith records show that a Methodist was buried in Penrith in 1772. John Wesley is said to have visited Penrith in 1766 and 1780 when he preached in the Upper Room at Crown Terrace, prior to that he preached at Clifton in June 1752 when travelling from Barnard Castle to Whitehaven. In 1806 there were 20 members recorded as Wesleyan Methodists this rose to 96 by 1825, 131 by 1846, 206 by 1866 and this remained the same in 1923 compared to 355 in 2010.
A total of 153 ministers have served the Church in the period 1806 – 2011.
More detailed information on this history is located both at the Church and at the Carlisle Record Office of Cumbria Archives (see http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/archives/recordoffices/carec.asp)