At the annual ‘Be a Chorister’ day,October 2010

Wells CathedralChoir Association

Newsletter Spring 2011

We will be holding the 2011 annual Wells Cathedral Choir Association (WCCA) reunion on Saturday 30 April 2011. A reply slip is enclosed with this newsletter, please return this to Izzi Bucknall as soon as possible. It would be great to see as many ex-choristers, scholars and organists as possible and see if we can exceed the number of choristers which sang last year (36). Please also make a note that all subsequent re-unions will take place on the last Saturday of April each year, so try and keep those dates free.

The format for next year’s re-union will revolve around Evensong. We will meet at 3.30pm in the Cathedral and rehearse for Evensong with the Great Choir (girl and boy choristers). Afterwards there will be an informal supper at the Fountain Inn. The WCCA has purchased two cups to be presented at the annual chorister prizegiving which takes place on the last weekend of the Summer term. The cups are presented to the senior girl and boy chorister who have shown the most pastoral care to the junior choristers. The junior choristers vote on who should be awarded the cup; this year it went to William de Chazal and Hannah Wills.

The Choir has been busy with recordings this year. They have received excellent reviews from Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, International Record Review,

The Observer, among others.

The Choir has just received a hugeaccolade having been named thegreatest choir with children in the world and the sixth greatest choir in the world overall, by an international jury from the Gramophone magazine. This is a superb reflection of the quality of singing at Wells under Matthew Owens’ stewardship.

The boy choristers have also just had a very successful tour to the Hague from 10-16 December 2010, where they sang three concerts to packed houses. Please do continue to send any jottings or news/memories of your time in the choir to Diana Davies (archivist@wellscs.somerset.sch.uk) and we will aim to include them in future newsletters. You will see that we have included a donation slip with the newsletter. As you may remember from last year, we are looking to fund future bursaries for choristers who need financial help. We think this would be a very laudable additional objective of this organisation so any help you can give would be gratefully received. I look forward to seeing you on 30 April 2011. Chris Seaton,Chaiman WCCA

Wells CathedralChoir Association

Oliver Walker

Dominic Bland

Ghislaine Reece-Trapp

Choristers

Senior Organ Scholar, to Solihull School, Warwick

Tenor Choral Scholar, to the choir of St. George’s, Windsor

Junior Organ Scholar. Gap year at Guildford Cathedral

2011 Organ Scholar, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

Adam Hickox

Emma Coppen, Alicia Corr, Julia Storm, Zara Topham

Valete

SalveteStephen Buzard

James Butler

Owain Park

Choristers

Probationers

Head Choristers

Deputy Head Choristers

Senior Organ Scholar

Tenor Choral Scholar

Junior Organ Scholar

Oliver Buckland, (from Truro Cathedral)

Willard Carter, Gabriel Donaghue, Antony Perillo

Rosa Bonin, Ella Corlett, Niamh Davies

Alfie Johnson and Annabel Green

Isaac Coton and Suzy Kingston

“Though you may not know it, you may be helping people to discover again what it means to believe.” Addressed to the cathe-dral choir, these were the final words of the Precentor’s sermon, given on Sunday 11th July, the last day of the choir’s year. Through the words and music of the choir, I hope that people do indeed glimpse something of God in this beautiful and uplifting building during the nine services that we sing every week during school term times and at other key points of the church’s year.

I often wonder, however, if visitors, and even members of the congregation, are aware of how much the mission of the cathedral choir goes far beyond its statutory duties. The list below refers to the last academic year – a fairly typical year in terms of all the ‘extra curricular’ activities that the Boy Choristers, Girl Choristers, Vicars Choral and Organists undertake in order to spread the Gospel of Christ, whether in the cathedral or out and about:

September: diocesan visit to the Parish Church of SS Peter & Paul, Bleadon (boy choristers & men); annual joint Evensong with Wells Cathedral Voluntary Choir (girl choristers & men).

October: visits to St Margaret’s Hospices in Yeovil and Taunton as part of the cathedral’s outreach programme (boy choristers); the annual Be a Chorister for a Day (choristers helping during the day; the Great Choir sing-ing with the local children during Evensong); Girl Choristers’ 15th Anniversary Evensong, including a first performance of a newanthem by Joseph Phibbs.

November: All Souls’ Day Requiem Mass by Fauré (boy choristers & men); a private short concert for the HRH The Countess of Wessex in her capacity as Patron of the

Soli Deo GloriaGirl Chorister Trust (girl choristers); Vicars Choral Commemoration Concert; adevotional performance of the DurufléRequiem for Remembrance Sunday (Great Choir); chorister outreach visits to local schools (boy and girl choristers); choristeroutreach concert, with children from local primary schools (boy choristers); 1100th Songs of Praise Service to mark the end of the anniversary year (Great Choir); Advent Carol Service (Great Choir).

December: annual singing at the Reindeer Parade in Wells Market Square, in aid ofSomerset Air Ambulance (boy choristers); 2 Candlelight Concerts (senior choristers & men); Cathedral Carol Service (Great Choir); Midnight Mass and Christmas Dayservices (Great Choir).

January: Evensong at Downside Abbey as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (boy choristers & men); a livebroadcast of Evensong on BBC Radio Radio 3, to an audience of over quarter of a million listeners, for Holocaust Memorial Day (boychoristers & men).

February: the recording of two Sunday Half Hour programmes for BBC Radio 2, for a combined audience of over half a million (all choristers); chorister outreach visits (boy and girl choristers).

March: singing for HRH The Countess of Wessex at the meeting of the Bath & West Show Council (girl choristers); chorister outreach concert, with children from local primary schools (boy choristers);Diocesan visit to St Andrew, Banwell (boy choristers & men); the recording of anthems CD in aid of St Margaret’s Hospice for Regent Records (Great Choir); Choir Schools’Association Football & Netball Tournament

and Evensong at Oxford (boy and girlchoristers).

April: first performance of a new setting of the St Matthew Passion for Palm Sunday; joint Evensong with former choristers as part of our now annual Old Choristers’ Reunion (Great Choir).

May: a special Evensong in the presence of Lady Hobson MBE (Patron of the WellsCathedral Girl Chorister Trust), with a new anthem Take Time, composed as a ‘thank you’ to Lady Hobson for all of her support of the Trust (girl choristers & men).

June: diocesan visit to All Saints Church, Weston-Super-Mare (boy choristers & men); joint Evensong at Bristol Cathedral with Choristers from Bristol & ExeterCathedrals (girl choristers); recording of the James MacMillan disc for Hyperion Records (boy choristers & men); the launch of the choir’s latest CD ‘Flame Celestial’ (choral music by David Bednall, Volume 2, recorded by Choristers and Vicars Choral inFebruary 2009); chorister outreach visits to local schools (boy and girl choristers);chorister outreach concert, with children from local primary schools (boy choristers); the festival New Music Wells 70-10,including world premieres by JudithBingham, Gary Davison, Tom Goff, Timothy Noon, Joseph Phibbs, and Jeremy Woodside; the Annual Diocesan Choral Festival at the Cathedral (girl choristers & men).

Through the outreach work, specialservices and concerts, the choir reaches people throughout Somerset. Thebroadcasts and CD recordings mean that we reach people all over the world. But our most important role remains the singing of Eucharist, Mattins and Evensong in the mother church of this diocese.

Into this cathedral choir’s 1100 year old tradition, we welcome the following boy probationer choristers in September:

Willard Carter, Gabriel Donaghue, Antony Perillo; and, as a full chorister, OliverBuckland, who comes to us from Truro Cathedral. We also welcome the following girl probationer choristers: Rosa Bonin, Ella Corlett and Niamh Davies. Finally, we welcome James Butler as the Tenor Choral Scholar, Owain Park as Junior Organ Scholar, and Stephen Buzard as Senior Organ Scholar.

Congratulations are due to Angus Clark, Freya Carruthers, Francesca Corr, Jordan Deans, Harriet Garstang, and Eleanor Scott who will be surpliced at the first Evensong of the year. Congratulations are also due to Alfie Johnson and Annabel Green (Head Boy and Head Girl Choristers respectively) and Isaac Coton and Suzy Kingston (Deputy Head Boy and Deputy Head Girl Choristers respectively) who will be inducted during the first Evensong of the choir’s new and equally busy year on Saturday 4thSeptember. I look forward to seeing you there or on another occasion, and thank you for all your support.

Matthew Owens, Organist & Master of the Choristers

First published in Chapter & Verse,September 2010

The cathedral choir has been officially nominated, by no less than an august panel put together by the Gramophone magazine, as sixth out of the twenty greatest choirs

of 2010. Since Matthew Owens arrived the cathedral congregation has been exposed to an increasing amount of contemporary

music, much of it commissioned byMatthew. One hears the occasional bleat

from the more die hard traditionalists among us but overall most have been

surprised by the beauty of the composition and the singing from a choir which ‘must

currently stand as England’s finest cathedral choir’.

- International Record Review

Edmund became House Captain of Ritchie,appeared in the West End and on Broadway with

the National Youth Music Theatre, took a degree in Norwegian at Edinburgh followed by teacher

training in Bath and returned to teach Drama at Wells Cathedral School becoming Assistant

Housemaster of Cedars. A spell in Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Dublin, allowed him time to play Rugby but teaching beckoned and after a short

tough time in London schools he is nowcomfortably settled as Director of Drama at Fettes College, where he joins ex Wells chorister Duncan

Parry who teaches Classics.Edmund is to become the civil partner of Dr. Luke Boulter in Fettes College Chapel – in fact the knot

may have been tied by the time this newsletter reaches you – and they will set up home together

with Forbes, a new puppy, lineage unspecified.

Ben Hayler(chorister 1994-8)

Ben is now a Captain in the Scots Guards and when he wrote in July was in Lashkar Gar,Helmand Province,

Afghanistan, and half way through a seven month,

second tour, of duty acting as a Forward Air

Controller, calling in allied airstrikes. During hisfortnight’s R & R he

found, as with so many old choristers, Wells

drew him back on a visit.

Edmund Comer (chorister 1986-91) Esther Arnold (chorister 1994-8)

Esther’s is one of severalweddings of girl choristers

over the last couple of years. She met her future husband,

George Bullock at BirminghamUniversity and they married at Wareham, Dorset on 26th August 2010 after George

was asked to transfer to hiscompany’s New York office. Prior to her marriage Esther was working for Goldman Sachs. Her sister, Ruth, also

a chorister (1998-2002) was bridesmaid. After leaving

Wells Esther continued to sing, mainly for weddings and other special occasions, most recently an outdoor wedding

at Wadhurst Castle where she sang ‘Misty’ for the first

time in many years.

Chorister news

Beth Fay(chorister 1998-2004)

Beth was the first girl chorister to marry, onJuly 15th 2006. After

completing her degree at Cambridge she

married Old Wellensian and fellow WCS pupil

Peter Roderick and set up home in York. Hersister Rose, one of the

first choristers, isteaching in South Oxford and undertaking various illustrating commissions.

Emilia Hughes(chorister 1999-2002)

Emilia held a ChoralScholarship at Clare College,

Cambridge, touring abroad andmaking several recordings

with the choir. Now in London Emilia sings with such

notable choral groups as the Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen and Tenebrae. She has a regular

position in the professional choir of

St Bartholemew-the-Great which she enjoys as it enables her to continue singing a great

deal of the repertoire she learned as a chorister at Wells and before that as a chorister at Salisbury. She also teaches

singing and providesextra-tuition for aspiring

mathematicians.If you live in the vicinity of Salisbury Emilia will be asoloist in Bach’s St. John

Passion in the cathedral during Holy Week next year.

Chorister news

Scott Bosscher (Vicar Choral 1992-95)

Scott came across the pond to join the choir and teach in school. Now back in Grand Rapids, Michigan he writes:

“My singing years in the choir of Wells Cathedral and teaching at Wells Cathedral School were three of the most wonderful years of my life, and not just for me but for my family also. What an amusing community of people and musicians. The choir was and is one of the finest in the world. I learned so much from Dr Crossland, Andrew Nethsingha and Rupert Gough. But equally

rewarding was the privilege of teaching the boy and girlchoristers in their weekly voice lessons, as well as the GCSE and A-level instruction. Currently I teach the opera program at Grand Rapids Community College and for the last ten years have led the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys, the only RSCM accredited choir in America not affiliated to a single church. We are arts based with boys from different churches all over the city. In March Andrew Nethsingha comes to spend a week leading the choir in a Lenten program. Perhaps one day we can cross back over your way and take a weeklong summer residency at Wells to sing the Cathedral services - then life will have come full circle. Blessing to all at the school and cathedral

... you are never far from my thoughts.”(More details about Scott and the choir are available on Facebook).

Naomi, now a stalwart member of the WCCA committee is, I believe, the first chorister to

marry a Vicar Choral. Naomi and Iain MacLeod Jones were married in the Cathedral on July 17th

2010 with the Cathedral Choir in attendance.

Naomi Marshall (chorister1998 - 2004)

Naomi Cain(chorister 1994-8)

Naomi, one of the first girl choristers, married

Christopher Barson in Wells Cathedral on April 11 2009, and is now known as Naomi

Barson-Cain. Chris isapparently responsible for

the Red Button on thetelevision screen.

Congratulations Wellensian Consort!

made up of Old Wellensians under the direction of

Congratulations to The Wellensian Consort,

Christopher Finch,who won the final of

BBC Choir of the Year,held in the Royal Festival Hall on 28th November 2010. Over 150 choirs and

6,000 singers were involved in the competition.

A good number of the choir have been cathedral choristers: Ned Berry, Catherine Hart, Annie Jones, Jeremy Lloyd, Naomi MacLeod–Jones (nee

Marshall), Leonie Maxwell and Kieran White.

Many years ago, at the tender age of eleven, I was given the opportunity to become a girl chorister in Wells Cathedral Choir. Not really knowing what I was letting myself in for, I jumped at the chance, and, I’m glad to say, I have never looked back.

Schola Cantorum

The five years that formed my tenure allowed me to enjoy the experience of singing the daily services in the Cathedral, performing in high-profile concerts in the UK, touring abroad, making commercial recordings and broadcasting our music live on TV and radio. The sad thing about this path is that it, of course, has to come to an enforced end! Chorister leavers often fall into two distinct camps: those who know they are going to miss their chorister days desperately and will do anything to keep singing, and those who know that, for now at least, they have had their fill of choral singing, (although I believe that a surprising number of the latter often return to some form of singing earlier than they expect!). Those who are keen to continue often join choirs which perform similar music and they may go on to become members of some of the professional church choirs employing adult sopranos and altos.Wells Cathedral School provides well for its ex-choristers in the Chapel and Chamber Choirs but we all have to face the fact that we will never really be able to re-live our chorister days, singing with the back row of the Vicars Choral in the familiar acoustics of the Cathedral... that is until now!

Matthew Owens, the current Organist and Master of the Choristers at Wells, has recently formed a new choir comprised of former girl choristers who live locally and the Vicars Choral. This group, currently called the Schola Cantorum, (though the name is up for debate), has been formed with the idea that it might sing atoccasional services and other events in the Cathedral when it is not practical for the choristers to do so.The first meeting of the Schola was a Sunday afternoon rehearsal in May and we joined the Vicars Choral in singingEucharist on the following Sunday for the Feast of Pentecost. This was a thoroughlyenjoyable occasion. We sang VaughanWilliams’ beautiful Mass in G minor, a challenging unaccompanied work for eight-part choir and soloists, and John Rutter’s ‘Come down, O Love Divine’. It was a tremendous feeling to be back on our home turf, singing with the Vicars Choral, once again filling that unique space with music. Our performance prompted many positive comments from the regularcongregation and visitors.The group is still developing, but we will certainly be meeting and singing again and hope that we will become a regular feature.

Naomi MacLeod-Jones.

After a breakfast of ‘powdered’ scrambled eggs and rubber toast we gathered for ranks at 7.45 am. Our practice room then was over the West Cloister and to get there we were forbidden to walk close to the West Front lest we be hit by falling angels!

There were just fourteen of us boys and three or four probationers. Denys Pouncey, with his bushy eyebrows and gentle demeanour practised with us until 10.00 when we returned to school for lessons. During practice probationers and juniors went in turn to the Assistant Organist at 25 Vicars Close for lessons in theory; how well I remember that wonderful Australian gentleman, MervynCallaghan trying to instil into my brain that, “The key of F Major, JB, has one flat!”Evensong was at 5 pm in those far off days and in winter the Cathedral was cold and sparsely lit. There were a dozen or so electric lights but otherwise the Nave and Chancel were lit by magnificent Victorian gasoliers which popped throughout Divine Service. We sang and processed in pools of soft light and the vaults were lost in inky darkness,Congregations were often tiny in the dark months but on warm Sunday afternoons in May and June, wearing freshly starched Eton collars and crisp clean surplices we filled the

A Chorister’s day 50 years ago

Chancel with glorious renditions of ‘Blessed be the God and Father’ and the great masterpieces of theAnglican repertoire.We were encouraged in all we did by elderly canons and Archdeacons, the latter bandy-legged and gartered. Most loved of all was our Precentor, Canon J S L Jones, who on awintry evening would remind us that empty as the Cathedral had seemed at Evensong we had just had the privilege of singing God’s praises for the shepherds of Exmoor, the seamen of Watchet, the coal miners of Radstock and the good but busy souls of Somerset.

John Francis Bucknall (chorister 1958-63)First published in ‘Chapter & Verse’, June 2010.

John dedicated this article to the memory of his friend, Philip Gilbride, Head Chorister, who died aged 21 when the light aircraft in which he was a passenger was lost without trace in the sea off Alaska.

I arrive for ranks at 7.40 am and meet the group of sometimes sleepy children, (though not for long!), ready for a new day in my life as a chorister.

A Chorister’s day in 2011

responsibility of keeping an important tradition alive. In doing what has been done by choristers for hundreds of years I have become part of history.

William de Chazal, Head Chorister 2010.First published in ‘Chapter & Verse’, June 2010

We get down to the Cathedral and enter the building, A feeling ofancient wisdom and serenity issettled in the Cathedral, as the warm sunlight streams through the stained glass windows. Some mornings the walk through the cloisters to the Song School is accompanied by a squeal as a small girl chorister finds that Louis, the naughty but lovable cathedral cat, has yet again left a little present for us; usually a dead mouse.We commence with warm-up and rehearsal until 9 am. School follows and at 4.10 pm I’m back to the choir until 6 pm, whether we are rehearsing for upcoming services or singing Evensong. I live a busy life as a Cathedral chorister. It can be hard sometimes as the schedule is quite tiring. But it’s rewarding in so many ways; the fantastic musical experience and knowledge I gain; the strong friendships I’ve made, and the wonderful music I sing with the choir. Most of all, the feeling that I’m part of the Cathedral and that in singing every day I’m taking on the

“In May, 1935, as a child of eight, I was admitted to Wells Cathedral Choir as a probationer by Conrad Eden. After five years as achorister Denys Pouncey asked me to sing Alto whenever my school commitments allowed. When my adult voice developed I sang Bass for two years before leaving school in 1944 to join the Royal Navy. The opportunity to sing in the back row of the choir arose because the younger Vicars Choral had left to join the Services in time of war.We who have the privilege of hearing the daily offices and concerts in the cathedral appreciate the very high standard of the music in both composition and performance. Before the war circumstances precluded such excellence, although things were improving.With no girls in the choir, the amount of time and work for the choristers wasenormous. Along with Westminster Abbey and Lichfield Cathedral, Matins andEvensong were still sung at Wells every day. Holy Communion on Sundays was sung once a month, almost invariably toMerbecke’s plainchant setting. We rehearsed in an upper room of the west cloister, Monday to Saturday, from 8.30 to 9.45 am, prior to Matins at 10. On Saturdays Full Practice lasted from 11 to 12.30 pm, the only chance to run over music for the coming week, and any festivals in the offing.Much of the variety of today’s services was lacking. Responses were regularly sung to Tallis’s festal version, and on Wednesdays and Fridays the whole Litany was sung on our knees! The Preces and Collects were intoned by a Priest Vicar, often Prebendary Ritchie, the headmaster. Under Eden and Pouncey the aim in psalm

singing was speech rhythm, and to this end a ‘Psalter newly pointed’ from RSCM was introduced. Wells used its own bound selection of Anglican chants, many of which were by previous Wells’ musicians such as Lavington and Turle. Newer settings of the Canticles were being introduced, including Stanford, Dyson, Wood and Brewer, but the preponderance of the services was of jejeune material from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The altos and tenors would sing these from bound volumes of manuscript, single parts written in alto and tenor clefs. The anthems were usually of more musical value, and included choruses from Handel, Mendelsssohn and Staineroratorios. The texts for the usual repertoire were to be found in large bound books in the Prebendal stalls. Incidentally, ladies, in their obligatory hats, were not expected to occupy this back row. However there were often only a few, if any, people in the congregation.The choristers were fourteen in number, selected by vocal range to sing in Cantoris or Decani to facilitate two-part music. About half our number were boarders and half day-boys. On Sundays the boys wore Eton suits and mortar boards with a stiff two-inch deep collar. During the week most of us were in short trousers, and in winter we were glad to don cassocks and surplices. We robed in the room at the foot of the north-west tower, whilst the men used the room under the clock.The full complement of twelve in the lower voices was seldom present. Some of the Vicars Choral were youngish and had fine voices, but some remained from the period up to 1933, when they were appointed, after a year’s probation, ‘in perpetuity’ and allocated a dwelling in Vicars Close. Thepittance they earned from the cathedral

Music in the Cathedral 1935-1944

had to be supplemented by outside work. Messrs. Dawkes and Partridge, surely in her seventies, ran a photographic business in Market Square. Mr Appleyard, senior, was a barber in Sadler Street and had grown so deaf that he struck a tuning fork before each chorus and watched others to keep time. I refrain from other comments for fear of causing offence.The organ, of which the Quire-facing pipes were garishly painted, was a fine power-ful instrument, with the reeds at 16” wind pressure, and could be heard at times from Tor Woods or the dormitories in the Cedars.Tuesday services were sung by boys only, with a four-part arrangement of theResponses. Monday Matins andWednesday Evensong were sung by the men. On Fridays the organ was not used, and we took the note from the pitch pipe. No-one ever stood between the pews to conduct the choir, and the responsibility for controlling the attacks, releases, tempi and pauses was entrusted to the HeadChorister, who used his fore-finger just above the desk. His opposite numberduplicated the beat for the other side. A voice tube with a whistle at either end connected an Alto’s stall with the organ loft though I never heard it being used.There were several special occasions each year, such as Patronal Festival, Carol Service on Boxing Day, (when the collection was divided pro rata among the boys), and con-concerts by the Oratorio Society, stillconducted in 1935 by Dr. Davis, thePrecentor and one-time Organist. Today the choir is sometimes taken on overseas trips. Probably the first and only time the choir sang outside Wells at this period was a Three Choirs Festival at Sherborne Abbey, together with Truro and Exeter. The choir also gave some wireless broadcasts entitled, ‘An Hour’s Sacred Music’, for which we learned some fine anthems such as Parry’s ‘My soul there is a country’ and Stanford’s ‘Glorious and powerful God’.

I sang at the enthronement of three bishops, Underhill, Wand and Bradfield, the last of these being filmed for Pathe GazetteNewsreel. The American pictorial magazine ‘Time and Life’ selected Wells for an extend-ed feature on an English cathedral in 1943, and photos were taken of the Vicars Choraleating cake from their medieval pewter plates at the refectory table in their Hall. In those days this was the province of TheVicars, and the public never saw the interior.The war brought some changes. The younger men were called up, and Martindale Sid-well, our Deputy Organist, left and was not replaced. When Mr Pouncey joined the RAF Mr Bawtree-Williams was appointed as Choirmaster and Organist, and he asked me to be his sub-organist. Occasionally the siren sounded during a service and the procedure was to retire to the Undercroft andcomplete the office there.Far fewer concerts and recitals were held in the cathedral. I remember the famous soprano, Elsie Suddaby, singing ‘O had I Jubal’s lyre’ and Purcell’s ‘Evening Hymn’. Leon Goosens, the virtuoso oboist refused to play at a distance from his accompanist so a hinged platform was constructed above the steps to the organ loft.As choristers we only had half the usualholidays; two weeks after Christmas and Easter, and four weeks in late August into September. During term-time we had no lessons in science, geography, art or craft. But I never regretted my time at Wells. It has given me a life full of music which continues into my eighties. Just as the amenities and beauties of the cathedral have been improved in recent years, largely due to the support of theCathedral Friends, so the music hasdeveloped. I am proud to have played a small part in the maintenance of a great tradition.

John V Barrettfirst published in the Journal of The Friends of Wells Cathedral 2010.(The school archives contain some of the printed and photographic material mentioned in this article.)

The Adventures of aBaby Grand PIano...

After the 1914-18 War the French and Britishgovernments demanded reparations from Germany. Among the articles received by Britain were eight baby grand pianos, manufactured by Richard Lipp and Son of Stuttgart, one of which ended up in a music shop in Weston-super-Mare. It was bought

by Horatio Kenney of 5 Vicars Close, Wells.Mr. Kenney was originally a toolmaker from

Leicestershire who came to Wells as a Vicar Choral: tenor, cantoris. He supplemented his income from the cathedral by teaching singing, and among his

pupils were students from the Theological College whom he taught to sing the liturgy correctly. He

was also successful in curing ladies with stammers.Horatio’s three sons, Arthur, Howard and Richard

were all choristers and cathedral school pupils. Arthur, (chorister 1925-34), eventually became

Major Kenney, bandmaster of the brigade of Guards. After resigning his commission in 1969 he went on to be the very successful bandmaster of the Welsh multi-prizewinning Cory Brass Band.

Howard, (chorister 1937-41), became anaccountant with Hocker and Booker in Wells,

(now the National Trust shop), before setting up on his own as an accountant for farmers. Richard,

(chorister 1937-42), spent several years as a young man on an Antarctic research ship. Father and sons all succumbed to heart attacks and with the exception of Arthur their remains are in the

Camery Garden.But what became of the piano? After Horatio’s death his widow removed to a smaller house at 22 Vicars Close and eventually she sold the

instrument to her nephew, George, in Glenfield, Leicester, (where coincidentally both Dean

Richard Lewis and his wife, Jill, were born). And there it reposed until George entered a

retirement home. As he had been organist of the village church the piano was removed to St.

Peter’s, Glenfield where it now remains.I had this story from George’s brother, whoretired to Wells. His mother’s sister marriedHoratio Kenney and George’s brother visited

Vicars Close frequently as a boy and lived with the Kenneys for the whole of his fourth year.

Diana Davies, Archivist WCS

Nick and Jane Wilson:A personal tribute

I first heard of the Wilsons from my pupils at St. Peter’s School, York, in the 1980s, who often reminsced about their time with Nick and Jane, their houseparents in one of the Junior boarding houses, and for whom they expressed warm admiration and deep affection. Nick was a familiar, if distant figure then, often spotted striding down the road with his young son in a baby carrier on his back. But eight years after I made the journey south to Wells Nick joined us via his first headship at Berkhamsted.

Daphne and Philip Peabody were adifficult act to follow but it rapidlybecame clear that Nick and Jane shared their same total commitment to the Junior School, its pupils, staff and parents. After a morning dealing with hormonally charged teenagers it was such a joy to walk through the hole in the wall for a meeting with Nick in the oasis that is Wells Cathedral Junior School. No matter how busy his life – and his is a teaching headship - he always appears to have all the time in the world for anyone he meets.

As heads of the Junior andMiddle Schools respectively Nick and I shared a pastoral responsibility for the choristers. Fortunately we both had some grasp of what this might involve; my arrival at Wells coincided with my seven-year-old son’sdeparture for six years to the choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge and Nick had entered the Song School of York Minster at the age of seven, when his father had been appointed

Nick and Jane Wilson:A personal tribute

vicar of Easingwold. Although never a member of the Minster choir Nick learned from his classmates just howdemanding is the life of a cathedralchorister.

Jane too was growing up close to Eas-ingwold in the village of Sutton-on-the-Forest, and she and Nick eventually met each other. After University and a spell in Nigeria with VSO, Nick brought Jane to York with their young family.

If you are a reader of obituaries, (male variety), you will have noticed that after several columns of newsprint extolling the virtues of the recently departed, his wife is granted perhaps a brief mention in the final sentence. Well, we are having none of that here! In Nick and Jane, Wells gained, in current marketing jargon, two for the price of one, for Jane remains, as all choristers will recognise, a wife whose price is far above rubies. For the pastfifteen years the couple have devoted their whole lives to the service of the Junior School, and Jane can be seen day by day looking after ranks morning and even-ing: overseeing tea and supper; sharing the choristers’ joys and sorrows; talking with their parents; a real mother figure. Add to this her quietly behind-the-scenessupport of Nick at Parents’ Evenings, Open Mornings, Games Fixtures, school services, trips, concerts and plays and one can see her true worth. Nor could Ipossibly fail to mention what many will see as her crowning glory; the magnificent costumes which she spent hundreds of hours creating for the justly famousend-of-year drama productions. And in all this the centre of her life was the home

NB. Some of you may have been taught by John Mitchell, who migrated to York and was a col-league of Nick. I also had as colleagues two Old Wellensians: Paddy Stephens, son of GPs in Wells and Richard Wright, whose father was sometime vicar of St. Thomas’s. Both remain on the staff of St. Peter’s to this day.

she made in New Street for Nick, Clare and David, her family, who stood at the heart of the family of the school.

Much is being written elsewhere of Nick’s inspirational leadership over the past fifteen years. He shares with thechoristers the same striving forexcellence in all things which dominates their lives. He and Jane are quite simply two of the finest people it has been my privilege to work with and my pleasure to know.

Diana Davies

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Email: archivist@wellscs.somerset.sch.uk