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SUMMARY:West Gallery Quire Performance and Churchyard Tours
DTSTART:20260919T130000Z
DTEND:20260919T150000Z
DTSTAMP:20260928T175908Z
UID:13581932026-09-19 13:00:00+00:00achurchnearyou
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Saturday 19th September 2026\nHoly Trinity Church\, Abbots Lei
 gh\nDoors open 2pm\, performance at 2:30pm\n\nWe are lucky enough to have 
 Bristol Harmony\, a West Gallery Quire\, visit during their annual Church 
 Crawl on Saturday. They will be playing and singing music that was played 
 and sung in churches in the centuries before organs were installed. This w
 ill be a rare opportunity to discover a tradition long lost to current chu
 rch culture.\nHistorically\, harmony singers and musicians were often plac
 ed at the west end of a church\, in a raised ‘singing seat’ or a galle
 ry: hence the term ‘West Gallery music’\, which was devised by Thomas 
 Hardy to refer to the sturdily independent character of the old church ban
 ds. \nIn the end\, as Hardy observed\, changes of various kinds in church 
 and village life and practice led to the demise of the singers as an indep
 endent force in English country churches: the galleries and singing seats 
 were destroyed\, the instruments were disposed of\, and the manuscript mus
 ic books lost. The churches came to be dominated by a harmonium or an orga
 n\, and the people sang in regimented fashion from Hymns Ancient & Modern.
 \n\nFollowing the Quire's performance\, at about 3pm\, tea/coffee and refr
 eshments will be served in the Church.\n\nAfter tea\, from about 3:30pm we
  will be conducting guided tours of our beautiful Churchyard. \nWe will re
 veal the lives of some of those who lived in Abbots Leigh and have been bu
 ried in the Churchyard since 1699\, including MP's\, slave owners\, inn ke
 epers\, butchers\, servants\, doctors\, shepherds\, shipwrights\, farmers\
 , vicars\, lawyers... \nInformation on some of the memorials within the Ch
 urch will also be available.\n\nTours will last approx an hour.\nWe kindly
  request you book your place on a tour in advance. Each tour group will be
  limited in size to 6 people. Please email our administrator\, Abi\, at AL
 andLWChurches@gmail.com to book a tour.\nDonations are sought @ £10.00 pe
 r head\, with all proceeds going to support the Church. Children are welco
 me too\, with no donation expected for those under 5.\n\nWe look forward t
 o seeing you there!
GEO:-2.657296;51.463248
LOCATION:Holy Trinity
URL:https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/11702/service-and-events/events/
 1358193/
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