CE Tewkesbury Abbey Wed,18th May 2016

[DT1]

Not really, in my experience. The Schola lay-clerks are paid-up pros, who largely take up other gigs at the weekend, whereas the Parish Choir has its own loyal back-row membership. There are, of course, occasions where there might be exceptions to this but they are few and far between, I think.

There is no sharing of the 'back row' between the parish choir and the schola who use their own set of Lay Clerks.

For Lay Clerks it's a peculiar set up. There is in effect a list system not dissimilar to places like St. Margaret's Westminster where by a first tier of regulars get first dibs on services and then a pool of other semi regulars who get the rest. There is no minimum commitment of services and the whole thing runs on a lot of good will in all voice parts. The Lay Clerks are funded by the abbey and the boys by Dean Close.

The back row is staffed by a mixture of singers in the area and some full time lay clerks from Gloucester Cathedral down the road who come on their dumb days. To my knowledge there cannot be many out and about who can claim to have two Clerkships on the go at the same time or who would be happy to sing every single day! This has some disadvantages as it does mean that there is no two services served by the same back row and there is a lot of swapping around depending on what day of the week it is.