York Minster School

[Resurgam]

Reported in Daily Telegraph that York Minster School is to close as a result of the Minster's financial position due to loss of tourist income because of the virus ( some £5 million ) and parents inability to continue to send their children to the school for the same reason.

Things looking ominous for any cathedral that relies on tourism especially from abroad. Those who are able to be sustained locally will probably be OK.

Music generally has been very hard hit by the pandemic especially self employed artistes. Let's hope it recovers quickly.

[DracoM]

Desperate times for one of the bedrocks amid the ongoing hubs of excellence that feed our music scene.

And following news of the desperate plight of Westminster Cathedral Choir set-up.............?

[teamsaint]

In depth, if badly proof read article here.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/education/yorks-minster-school-set-close-after-minster-suffers-catastrophic-loss-income-during-lockdown-2873687#gsc.tab=0

Things look secure for the choir, if not the staff of the school.

[ardcarp]

A certain Reverend and interestingly named gentleman will be turning in his grave. I gather he pretty much 'saved' the choir school at some point, even though that is not mentioned in this Telegraph obit from July 2006:

The Reverend Bevan Wardrobe, who died on July 11 aged 80, made an important contribution to the education of the choristers of York Minster, then became a popular Anglican chaplain in Rome.
When, in 1967, he became headmaster of the Minster Song School, as the 12th-century foundation was then called, he found its accommodation and much else inadequate. He adapted the existing premises to create more usable space and eventually took over part of the Minster's precincts for additional classrooms, a library and an arts room.
Instrumental tuition was raised to a high standard; an orchestra of 21 players under a director of music was formed; and the school was given recognition by the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools.
In common with all choir school heads, Wardrobe found himself juggling with a complicated timetable designed to meet the differing requirements of choristers and non-choristers; but his own involvement in the leadership of the Minster's worship, as one of three vicars choral, greatly helped in the making of fine judgments.
As a schoolmaster he believed in the importance of firm discipline, and as a churchman he believed no less fervently in the importance of the Book of Common Prayer. But he understood boys, and also York's successive distinguished deans and organists, with all of whom he worked closely and amicably.
Shortly before his retirement from the school in 1984 the Minster was struck by lightning and its south transept engulfed by a major fire. (Some attributed the catastrophe to divine intervention, since it followed the consecration there the week before of the liberal Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins.)
The school itself was undamaged but the choristers' practice room was cut off and all the books and music it contained had to be hurriedly transferred to another room to enable rehearsals to continue uninterrupted for services in a nearby parish church; by the following Sunday, the choristers were back in the Minster.
Bevan Wardrobe was born at Hull on May 10 1926. He attended local schools, and in 1944 joined the Royal Engineers, serving in Northern Ireland and Hong Kong. He was for a time organist of the church in Kowloon and, although brought up in a Free Church tradition, became an Anglican through the influence of a services chaplain, Maurice Wood, a future Bishop of Norwich.
On demobilisation Wardrobe went to Hatfield College, Durham, to read History and English, then to Cuddesdon Theological College before becoming, in 1954, a curate at Christ Church, Southgate, in north London. After five years he moved to Lichfield, where he taught at St Chad's Cathedral School, and was dean's vicar, and later sub-chanter, of the cathedral.
On moving to Rome in 1985 he ensured that the worship in All Saints' Church was well ordered. A fine singer and an accomplished pianist, he offered sensitive pastoral care to a mainly transient congregation and established warm friendships at the Vatican and in the city while dealing effectively with what had been a precarious financial situation.
The final years of his full-time ministry were spent as chaplain at San Remo on the Italian Riviera, where the Anglicans and Roman Catholics shared a building and where he again exercised a much valued ministry. His retirement years were spent mainly in Cheltenham and for some years he assisted at Tewkesbury Abbey.

[cat]

This mirrors what happened at Canterbury in 1972 and Truro in 1982, with choristers being folded into larger existing schools. It seems to be a good thing, because it's surely not conducive to any child's education, especially a chorister's, to attend a school that's continually facing financial struggles. This was recognised by e.g. King's and John's in Cambridge long ago, when they decided that their choristers' education would be best served by expanding their schools to full-size so they could be financially stable and operated with minimal cross-subsidy.

[Resurgam]

I understand that Bramdean School, Exeter is also to close.

We haven't heard much of it in recent years but it used to have a fine choral tradition and produced possibly the only upper boys' voices CE ever broadcast back in the nineties which was quite superb. What a shame.

[DracoM]

I truly fear for many of the smaller schools, and I don't just mean the independents either.

In or near small villages....? Like us up here in far-from-centres rural areas? Local minibus firms teetering on the edge of extinction, who do transporting kids in and out but now limping out of business?
My own place has now NO buses AT ALL connecting it with any rail heads / town centres etcetc.
How are the kids going to get to school from outlying areas, or from non-car driving homes, or from homes where parents need their one and only car for their own jobs?

[Sorry - a bit off thread]

[Miles Coverdale]

While it is obviously regrettable that the Minster School has had to close, it strikes me that the Chapter at York was fortunate, at least as far as the choristers are concerned, in having a ready-made solution at hand in the form of St Peter's School (and also in that they were able to avoid having to close the school earlier by propping it up financially to the tune of £750k a year). I imagine there are a number of cathedral Chapters who have neither such an alternative schooling arrangement nor such deep pockets. It would not surprise me at all if some cathedral choirs have closed when the dust from this has settled.

[teamsaint]

While it is obviously regrettable that the Minster School has had to close, it strikes me that the Chapter at York was fortunate, at least as far as the choristers are concerned, in having a ready-made solution at hand in the form of St Peter's School (and also in that they were able to avoid having to close the school earlier by propping it up financially to the tune of £750k a year). I imagine there are a number of cathedral Chapters who have neither such an alternative schooling arrangement nor such deep pockets. It would not surprise me at all if some cathedral choirs have closed when the dust from this has settled.

I wouldn't want to speculate about York, ( well I would, but I won't) but the chance to save a current "subsidy" of £750K PA, plus potential deeper future losses, and the chance to get some income from the buildings would be far too much of an incentive for many Cathedral leadership groups to resist.

One might usefully look at similar( though different) recent events in Salisbury.

[ardcarp]

Funding of cathedrals seems to differ widely. Talking to a friend of a friend (an Anglican priest) today, it was mentioned that Norwich is a particularly well-off cathedral.
Can anyone confirm this, and if so, how do they do it? Is it like Oxbridge colleges, i.e. do some have more lands/endowments/benefactors than others?

[Miles Coverdale]

When I was at Guildford, one of the other lay clerks was a former Norwich choral scholar, and I'm fairly sure that he said that Norwich had a good property portfolio.

[oddoneout]

When I was at Guildford, one of the other lay clerks was a former Norwich choral scholar, and I'm fairly sure that he said that Norwich had a good property portfolio.

These would suggest that might be the case.

https://www.networknorwich.co.uk/Articles/495301/Network_Norwich_and_Norfolk/Regional_News/Norwich/Norwich_News_2015_2018/Norwich_Cathedrals_finances_in_a_healthy_state.aspx

https://www.cathedral.org.uk/contact-us/living-in-the-close

https://www.savills.co.uk/people/savills-norwich/louise-butcher.aspx

[Resurgam]

Funding of cathedrals seems to differ widely. Talking to a friend of a friend (an Anglican priest) today, it was mentioned that Norwich is a particularly well-off cathedral.
Can anyone confirm this, and if so, how do they do it? Is it like Oxbridge colleges, i.e. do some have more lands/endowments/benefactors than others?

I would imagine that it must be as you say. I doubt that Norwich, being well off the beaten track, has much in the way of tourism from abroad. Locals and coach trippers from within UK more likely.

I was surprised to read in Trevor Beeson's book 'A Window On Westminster' that the Abbey has little in the way of property assets their having been sold off some years ago as a short term financial fix or something and how reliant it is on tourism as a result.

It is always going to be dodgy for any company or organisation that has all, or the larger part, of its financial eggs in one basket if their main source of income disappears due to unforseen circumstances e.g. the Premier League with its TV sponsorship depending on games being played and the other lower leagues with their reliance on collecting gate receipts to pay the players and bills.

Cathedrals with few endowments but large and generous regular congregations and no expensive choir or associated schools to fund will probably come through this pandemic relatively unscathed

[cat]

I would imagine that it must be as you say. I doubt that Norwich, being well off the beaten track, has much in the way of tourism from abroad. Locals and coach trippers from within UK more likely.

I was surprised to read in Trevor Beeson's book 'A Window On Westminster' that the Abbey has little in the way of property assets their having been sold off some years ago as a short term financial fix or something and how reliant it is on tourism as a result.

It is always going to be dodgy for any company or organisation that has all, or the larger part, of its financial eggs in one basket if their main source of income disappears due to unforseen circumstances e.g. the Premier League with its TV sponsorship depending on games being played and the other lower leagues with their reliance on collecting gate receipts to pay the players and bills.

Cathedrals with few endowments but large and generous regular congregations and no expensive choir or associated schools to fund will probably come through this pandemic relatively unscathed

I was looking at Westminster Abbey's annual report yesterday, because unlike the cathedrals, I can't recall them appealing for endowment funds or legacies.

I was surprised that 66% of their net income is derived from visitor admissions and their shop and cafe, with only 3% coming from endowments. They do have some reasonable reserves, and when you strip out expenditure on visitor services etc, leaving only "religious activities, choir & music, and upkeep" the situation doesn't look quite so bad in the short term.

[BBMmk2]

Very sad to hear, as my late uncle Col R M Weare, to four the Yorkshire Volunteers Chapel.