Our Meeting House:

Colthouse is one of the oldest meetings of the Society of Friends. Interest in Quakerism arose in the Hawkshead area when George Fox cured a crippled boy there. When Friends in nearby High Wray felt in 1658 that they needed a graveyard, they bought a plot of land from a neighbour and established the peaceful hillside graveyard which is still used, with stones jutting from the wall which could be used as seats for meeting for worship. Eventually an orchard was purchased up the road and work began in 1688 on the meeting house, which was finished the same year.

Meeting for Worship:

Meeting takes place at 10.30 on the second and fourth Sundays, followed by tea and real coffee.

Parking on the road outside or through the farmhouse below.
Disabled access is not difficult, but there is no toilet specifically for the disabled.

Since then to the present day this meeting house has been in regular use. Its environment is almost completely silent, apart from birds and sheep. This, and its age and continuity of use over the centuries, seem particularly conducive to depth of worship in this place.

Wordsworth lived just down the road while at school in Hawkshead and worshipped at this meeting when rain made a trek to Hawkshead church uncomfortable. Beatrix Potter came to this meeting and said she "liked it very much".