Follow-up

JIM DIXON’S Hat in church? poem (Peterborough) reminded me of the late Bishop Mervyn Stockwood who, as a small boy, was taken by his nanny to visit the Anglo-Catholic church of All Saints Clifton in Bristol.

Many years later, while delivering a sermon in the very same church, he recalled how, during the visit, a fierce and frightening sacristan whipped the school cap off his head, reprimanding him with the words ‘Men and boys do NOT wear hats in church.’

‘But,’ explained the mitred bishop, ‘now I can!’ Tim Stanley, Bristol.