For Epiphany we paid a visit to Partis College, a charity which provides homes for women of professional status, all arranged around a large, elegant central court. Being private, and on the outskirts of the city, it’s one of Bath’s best-kept architectural secrets. It’s an Anglican foundation, and right in the centre of one side of the court is a small chapel (not the original one, but a Victorian rebuild in a curious mixture of styles by George Gilbert Scott, who also worked on Bath Abbey). We squeezed in along with many of the residents to sing evensong, including Bethlehem Down and Here is the little door, and were generously entertained by them afterwards.
More recently there was the funeral of a long-standing member of the congregation who had taken a keen interest in the choir. He had been in the Navy and so the service had a nautical feel, with Tom Bowling and A Life on the Ocean Wave on the organ, and Eternal Father, Strong to Save. The words to this were slightly amended (which caught out those singing from the hymn-book) but not as much as a version a friend claims to once have encountered:
- O hear us when we cry to You
For those upon the sea so blue.
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