I first attended the Convention on a Saturday evening in 1953. From Carlisle, where I lived, our Young People’s Fellow ran a coach to enjoy Keswick in the afternoon and attend the evening meeting. On Thursday we had a coach just to attend the evening meeting. I first attended for a whole week in 1955 camping independently at Springs Farm. I remember on the Thursday evening being challenged about a call to ordination. Last year I celebrated 60 years since my ordination!
I have attended on and off since then but was there in 2024. I have moved from camping on the Crosthwaite site through running House Parties and staying in Guest Houses to enjoying hotel comforts! In the early days, there were two tents, the main one in Skiddaw Street and a smaller one in Eskin Street (now flats). There were two speakers each evening separated by a hymn. When our children were small and we were in a House Party nearby, one of us put the children to bed while the other went to the meeting, leaving as the hymn between the talks began. By listening at the door of the Guest House for the start of the hymn, it was possible for the one who put children to bed to get there for the second talk!
Over the years, the Skiddaw Street tent has changed its orientation a few times with seats facing or with their backs to Skiddaw Street. This included the time when the new Convention Centre was built there. It has also moved from the formalities of clergy in dog collars and all the speakers seated on the platform every night to the present less formal approach and of course the new Pencil Factory site. But we still meet as “All One in Christ Jesus” as the banner used to proclaim at the entrance to the Skiddaw Street tent.