Efficient members": the early years of Methodism in Hunsonby and Winskill, 1821-1871

The growth of the Hunsonby Wesleyan Methodist Society, its place within the Penrith Circuit, and the role of many of its individuals, is revealed through a detailed study of surviving Methodist records, and a wide variety of personal and official sources. The society emerged in the early 1820s and quickly acquired its own chapel; by 1862, this was replaced by a larger building. Though not the first to be established, the society grew steadily to become one of the strongest and most influential in the rural villages of the Fellside and Eden valleys. By 1871, when another division occurred, it was the fourth largest of the 18 within the Kirkoswald Circuit and Methodism had become the most prominent denomination in Hunsonby and many local villages, in an area noted, in 1851, for its strong religious observance. (Author abstract - amended)