Cathedral garden celebration

Group’s anniversary will be marked with string of tours and fundraising events

A new garden is being dedicated to the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday to mark the group’s 90th anniversary.

Planted in the Precincts next to the Buffs statue, it will be unveiled during the Cathedral Open Gardens weekend.

The event marks the start of the anniversary celebrations, and on July 8 the charity’s 3,200 members will be invited to join special tours and events at the Cathedral.

Among them will be the launch of a new Friends trail, which will lead visitors around some of the various projects the group has supported.

The celebrations are being organised by Cathedral volunteers to celebrate the enormous contribution the Friends group has made to conserving and enhancing the building and its community, having raised the equivalent of almost £14 million.

Another event pencilled in is The Big Friendly Sing, on Sep- tember 17, which is open to singers of all abilities who would like to spend the day rehearsing Handel’s Messiah.

They will then give a performance in the evening in the Cathedral nave with professional soloists. The musical director will be Cathedral organist and Master of the Choristers David Flood.

The 200 spaces are filling up fast and anyone interested – particularly male singers – should email friends@canterbury-cathedral. org for a booking form.

During the year, the Friends have also been set a challenge by the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Rev Dr Robert Willis, who is the charity’s chairman, to come up with inventive and unusual ways of each raising £90 – to reflect the organisation’s 90 years.

Suggestions include playing 90 hymns in 90 minutes, giving up beer and donating the money, coffee mornings and a cake baking competition.

The last event of the 90th year will be a special evening on November 25 in the Cathedral Lodge to celebrate the Dean’s 25 years of leading the Cathedral community. It will include the Dean in conversation with Friends trustee David Knight, talking about his life and work as an Anglican priest.

Jason Chipperfield, who has been working on the Friends’ trail with fellow volunteers Alyson Osterloh and Cassie Mcgoldrick, talks to Friends about their research in the Cloister