This December, Birmingham University Singers will celebrate forty years of its annual visit to St Michael and All Angels Church in Tenbury Wells.
St Michael and All Angels Church in Tenbury Wells, UK
BUS is a mixed chamber choir of up to 45 auditioned singers directed by Bob Chilcott. The choir has a national reputation as one of the finest university choirs in the UK. Since 1986 it has – with limited exception – made an annual visit to St Michael and All Angels, Tenbury Wells, to give a Festival of Lessons and Carols.
The story of this unique tradition begins with the closure of St Michael’s College – a boys’ preparatory school founded by Sir Frederick Ouseley, created with the specific intention of training young singers in the performance of Anglican church music. With alumni and former staff including John Stainer, Jonathan Harvey, and David Willcocks, the college closed due to financial difficulties in 1985, leaving the small community of St Michael’s without its musical beating heart.
Owing to a personal connection with a Music Department secretary, Amanda Cadman, an invitation was extended to the Birmingham University Liturgical Choir (now Birmingham University Singers) to deliver the Festival of Lessons and Carols, with members of the community hosting students and staff alike in their homes. This tradition continued year on year – firstly under the direction of Professor John Whenham, and now Dr Paul Rodmell – with singers spending the weekend singing carols, delivering morning and evening services, and enjoying the hearty hospitality of the local community.
The rest, as they say, is history, and for over forty years countless young singers have made the annual pilgrimage to rural Worcestershire to be part of this special tradition. This year, to mark the anniversary, the choir have commissioned Bob Chilcott to write a new carol (‘Snowdrops’) that will be performed at the Festival of Lessons and Carols on Saturday 12 December 2026 in St Michael’s. This service will be in memory of John Whenham and Janet Penn.
The University asked a selection of those students who have been part of this tradition to reflect on what the experience has meant to them. You can find their memories as listed below.
I think I first went to Tenbury with BUS in 1997 and - one snowy winter and the pandemic year apart - have been every year since. When Ouseley founded the school in 1856 he deliberately did so in the middle of nowhere (the railway reached Tenbury five years later) and the school - about two miles from the town - sits on a plateau high above the Teme valley.
Dr Rodmell continued:
"The parish it serves has fewer than 500 residents yet they have, year after year, welcomed us for the weekend at the end of each autumn term, putting us up in houses spread around the village and providing frankly gargantuan amounts of food. Singing in this church - which has superb acoustics and a magnificent 'Father Willis' organ - is a magical experience; by now, several hundreds of students, from across the university, have made this visit and I know it has been hugely enjoyable for every one of them, as it remains for me. I keep my fingers crossed that we'll celebrate the fiftieth anniversary in 2036."
Peter Trethewey, General Manager, Ex Cathedra, said:
"Tenbury would have been one of my first experiences of singing liturgically. I have memories of the late Ian Ledsham accompanying at Tenbury; there's a story about him being locked in the dormitory by mistake before dinner, climbing out the window and walking to the pub - which is quite far - but I don't know now if that actually happened in my period or a story that got recounted every year! It was all very formative stuff for me as a relatively inexperienced singer, and a lovely way to spend a weekend. Overall, joining BUS in my first year (as one of 4 tenors) was the first time I'd sung in a chamber choir and it really opened my eyes and ears to quite a new world - it's fairly safe to say I wouldn't be doing what I do now if it wasn't for John [Whenham] taking a punt on me after a couple of verses of I vow to Thee my country in my audition!"
I have such fond memories of our weekend in Tenbury. I had been in the UK for only a few months, so I really didn’t know what to expect, but I was assured it was something that I shouldn’t miss. We arrived at this whimsical town and were received with an amazing lunch, my first-ever roast dinner! We stayed with a lovely couple that, knowing they were hosting an Argentinian and an Indonesian, made sure we were treated to a proper Full English breakfast, with the best fried toasts I’ve ever had. But above all, the highlight and the memory I’ll never forget was processing with the candles for Nine Lessons and Carols. It was the first time I sang in such a service. Singing beautiful Christmas music on an extremely cold Winter night at Tenbury felt truly special, and I felt so lucky to be there.
Peter Gortner, Kantor, Christuskirche Karlsruhe reminisced:
"The trip to Tenbury and singing those beautiful Christmas carols remains one of the best memories of my time in Birmingham. As a foreign Choral Conducting student from Germany, it was a wonderful experience for me to immerse myself in English traditions and share a sense of community with the people of my host family. The best moment of the trip: a fellow singer and I couldn’t make it to the Sunday morning service because we were snowed in!"
Andrew Ashwin, Professional Singer reported:
"My three years visiting Tenbury stand out as annual highlights of university life, with unforgettable memories created on my first trip in particular. It was 1999, a visit defined by an incredible, snowy atmosphere, an impossible stroke of luck where we lost a friend’s glasses on a late-night pub run and somehow recovered them from a vast field the next day, and an overwhelming sense of joy. The sheer warmth of the music, the food and the friendship filled me with so much inspiration that I asked my girlfriend, Lindsey, to marry me, at the tender ages of 19 and 18! Now, approaching 24 years of marriage, and raising our two beautiful daughters, we know that the irreplaceable memories of Tenbury reshaped our lives for the better; and that's no exaggeration!"
Tenbury at Christmas was always the highlight of the singing year for us in BULC. And in those days, we weren’t exactly upset to visit again for a summer concert! There was something so magical about singing a Festival of Lessons and Carols in this peculiar Hogwartseque school in the middle of nowhere — even if it was freezing! The Fountain Inn did stellar service as our equivalent of Hogsmeade, and provided almost as big a highlight in the calendar. I have nothing but the happiest memories of every single visit there.
Monty Charles, Professional Singer, Voces8:
"The power of a Christmas carol or two should not be underrated, and that’s certainly the case in Tenbury Wells where - as part of the University annual trip - it is not unusual to give a post-meal sing song of one of the classics after an incredible spread put on by the local community or one of the town’s trusty restaurants. That sort of community spirit is infectious, and I will never forget reaching a level of delirium with some of the other guys from the choir that led us to cram round a Christmas tree in our host living room, wearing as many festive decorations as we could find, and record a rather sketchy version of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’. A special few days in the musical calendar and ones I will never forget!"
Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Professional Singer described:
"I remember how much fun we had taking the Birmingham University Singers 'on tour' to Tenbury Wells, as well as the warmth of all the people there who hosted us. It was such a great learning experience to sing in the church services as well as joyfully performing four-part carols to the locals in The Fountain Inn! Overall, such a wonderful experience."
Senior Lecturer
Biographical and contact information for Dr Paul Rodmell, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Birmingham.
