The following is taken from Glimpses into the Past by Dr Brian Crosby, former Deputy Head Teacher of The Chorister School.

Dr Crosby has written a history of the School entitled Come on, Choristers! priced at £5.00 + p&p. All profits go to the School. If you would like to purchase a copy, please contact the School Office.

The Chorister School today is a preparatory school of over two hundred pupils, both boys and girls. Included in that number is a relatively small group of boys who receive a financially subsidised education in return for the musical contribution they make at some of the services held in the cathedral. With these choristers lies the long history of the school, for it was the need for a group of boys to be taught how and what to sing that brought the school into existence.

It was the fourteenth century that saw the developments being made in musical harmony introduced into some of the services, and particularly into the Mass celebrated in honour of Mary the Virgin. This was possible because it was additional to the monastic round of services whose format had been established for centuries.

The Lady Mass required youths to take part musically, and by June 1390 the standard of their contribution was adjudged unsatisfactory. This emerges from a complaint made by the monks to Prior Berrington. He approved their suggestion that an instructor (known as the Cantor), capable of teaching the youths what they had to sing, should be appointed.

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