CCCA
Welcome to the Chichester Cathedral Choristers' Association (CCCA). The Association was founded in 1977 by Richard Cock with a view to bringing together past and current Choristers and the musical staff of the Cathedral.
The Association also has a Scholarship Trust Fund which, as a registered charity, offers four Chorister bursaries. You can find out more about the Fund in our dropdown menu at the bottom of this page.
We are still here!
We may not be able to meet together for reunions at present, but our Association is still here and doing what it can to help. Our Scholarship Trust is still supporting chorister places by providing bursaries and additional assistance where needed in these financially uncertain times. It is with many grateful thanks to you, our members, that we are able to do this.
We are also very keen to hear your news; what interesting ideas have you come up with to entertain yourselves and what music have you been able to make? Please pass on your news via our email (chichesterchoristers@gmail.com).
We have all benefited from the ease of access to listening to the Cathedral choir on the cathedral’s streaming facility and their YouTube channel. If you haven’t tuned in yet, you really should!
We wish you all healthy, safe and happier times ahead.
History of the CCCA | |
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Patron: | The Lord Bishop of Chichester |
President: | The Dean of Chichester |
Vice Presidents: | Richard Cock Esq., Dr Alan J Thurlow & Jeremy L Suter Esq. |
Hon. Chaplain: | Rev'd David Burton Evans |
The Origins of the CCCA
"In 1975 for the 900th anniversary of Chichester Cathedral, many old Choristers attended events and I was amazed that there was no association to organise events for them - it was all a little haphazard. I spoke to John Birch and he said go ahead and try to organise a summer reunion - I got the feeling it had been tried before without success.
I was a lay vicar at the time, but interested in the idea of getting people together - it was obvious that there was a great love of the Cathedral and of the tradition and of John Birch. So I roped in help from various people who had names and addresses and with the help of the Banda machine, sent out letters. The thing snowballed and after a year or so we had a small committee to help: David Graebe, Alex Villiers.
Meg and Hoppy Reid, who were great supporters, did the catering, Anne Eyre later did it, Joe Croney supplied sherry and wine. It was really a very homegrown effort - but very successful and on a very small budget - mostly mine!!
The format was basically a summer gathering once a year. I had tried and made contact with the larger organisation of Chorister Societies. The Clergy and staff were always very helpful - we used John Birch's garden and for the last one I did we tagged onto the Southern Cathedrals Festival and used their facilities."
Richard Cock | Former Chorister, lay vicar & Assistant Organist
Membership
Former Choristers of the Cathedral Choir are, by right, members of the Association. Parents, other relatives of Choristers and anyone with a close association with the Choir may be eligible for Associate Membership. To become an Associate member, please fill out the Membership Pack.
Contact Us
To contact the CCCA, please email us at chichesterchoristers@gmail.com.
Committee Members | |
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John Attwater | Chairman |
Ros Craven | Hon. Secretary |
Howard Jenner | Treasurer |
Charles Harrison | Organist & Master of Choristers |
David Burton Evans | CCCA Chaplain |
Andrew Porter | Membership |
Alec Deighton |
John Attwater
CCCA Chairman (Chorister 1981-1985)
John Attwater has been Headmaster of King's Ely School for many years. Born in Rutland, he attended The Prebendal School where he was a Cathedral Chorister, before winning a scholarship to Rugby School. After a Gap year spent teaching in a tiny Yorkshire prep school, he read PPE at Oxford, gaining a First. Teacher training in History followed at York University, and then after some time back in Oxford he took a temporary post at Wells Cathedral School prior (he thought) to joining the Civil Service. Ten years later he was still there running the Religious Studies Department and a senior boys' boarding house, and married.
In December 2005 he, Victoria and their two-week-old daughter moved to Sevenoaks School where he became Deputy Head. Sevenoaks gave him his first experience of the IB Diploma, now the sole Sixth Form curriculum at King Edward's. At Sevenoaks, he also led the planning for a £12m Performing Arts Centre which opened in April 2010.
John Attwater is a governor of two schools (including The Prebendal School) and on the Advisory Board of The SpringBoard Bursary Foundation. His other interests include reading, cricket, his family (now number two daughters) and restoring their farmhouse in Wales.
Ros Craven
CCCA Honorary Secretary
Ros is the chorister parent of Philip Craven (1995-1999).
Howard Jenner
CCCA Treasurer (Chorister 1967-1971)
Born in Lydd, Kent, Howard Jenner was a Chorister at Chichester in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and was a proud member of The Prebendal School football and cricket teams. He still plays football, trying to relive the glory days of matches against Oakwood and Great Ballard. His cricket developed a little further peaking in an appearance as wicket-keeper in a Sussex v Kent 2nd XI match at Hastings, where the opposition keeper was one of The Prebendal's finer sportsmen, Tim Head.
Married with two daughters, he has lived in Twyford since 1987, jogs half marathons fairly regularly and completed the London Marathon in 2013. Having not sung for many years, he has recently joined the Reading Phoenix Choir where he attempts to make up for a shortage of tenors. In an effort to encourage the continuation of the tradition of choral music, he now runs the Walter Hussey Composition Competition.
Charles Harrison
Organiser & Master of the Choristers
Charles began his musical training as a chorister at Southwell Minster, and went on to study music at the University of Cambridge, serving as Organ Scholar at Jesus College. Before coming to Chichester in 2014, he held posts at Carlisle and Lincoln Cathedrals, and the Queen's University, Belfast.
Charles is a prize winner at two international organ competitions (St Albans and Odense, Denmark), and gives solo performances around Europe. For further information on Charles, please click here.
A History of the CCCA
Before the CCCA was started by Richard Cock in the 1970s, past Choristers used to meet in a back room at The Ship Hotel in North Street for lunch prior to the carol service that was held on the Sunday after Christmas. That tradition died out when the carol service moved to before Christmas.
Some members camped out one year when the Southern Cathedrals Festival (SCF) was at Chichester. They set up tents on the tennis courts, which is rumoured that Barry Marsh organised and got permission from Bernard Bate, the then Headmaster.
The first official reunion was in 1976. This was a get together to see if enough past Choristers were interested in joining an Old Choristers' Association and much to John Birch's (the Organist & Master of the Choristers) surprise, there were! The Dean and Chapter helped pump prime the fledging association by granting a loan of £200 that helped fund the purchase of old Chorister ties. The Association was called the Chichester Choristers' Association which was later changed to the Chichester Cathedral Choristers' Association (CCCA) to make it more specific. Originally, the word 'Old' was also inserted however this was removed as it was felt that it ostracised the current members of the choir and made it sound like an 'old boys club' which was not the idea!
In the early days, before the Bell Rooms or Cloisters Cafe, the Summer Reunion used to be held in various parts of the Close, often at The Deanery. One year, the lades in the Close went raspberry picking for the reunion lunch which was one of those held in The Deanery on a balmy day, so everyone ate on the lawn by the Ha Ha. We currently hold our reunion on Advent Eve at 6pm.
Chris Hamel-Cooke had links with Guildford Cathedral and so this led to a number of Beer and Skittles challenges at pubs that lay between Guildford and Chichester.
Since the 1990s, when the CCCA expanded its membership to include current Chorister parents, the Beer and Skittles evening changed to an in-house event. We tried out a number of venues locally before finding the Four Chestnuts in The Hornet a few years ago, which serves our needs very well. We usually have around 30 taking part in this event which has been won in recent years by the parents but we are hopeful of a past Chorister win before too long.
In the 1990s, there were a number of changes made to the Association. Not only was the name changed but the Committee saw its role as being wider than a forum for past Choristers to meet up and reminisce. The CCCA began to try and support the current Foundation in a number of ways; we started to sponsor the Organ Recital when the SCF was at Chichester, include current Chorister parents in reunions, increase the merchandise to include a separate Associate member's tie available to non-Choristers and cufflinks and lapel badges for ladies. This increased activity led to the setting up of the Scholarship Trust Fund.
Historical Photos
CCCA Chairmen
Chairmen to date:
Richard Cock | 1973 - 1980 |
Chris Hamel-Cooke | 1990 - 2001 |
David Ruffer | 2001 - 2017 |
John Attwater, the current Chairman | 2017 - |
CCCA Honorary Secretaries
Richard Cock - Joint Chairman/Secretary (Assistant Organist) | 1973 - 1980 |
Jeremy Suter (Assistant Organist) | 1981 - 1991 |
Alan Gurney | 1991 - 1993 |
Howard Trundell | 2000 - 2003 |
Fiona Bell | 2003 - 2006 |
Barbara Willis | 2006 - 2008 |
Dily Ruffer | 2008 - 2011 |
Dily Ruffer - Events Secretary | 2011 - 2017 |
Liz Alder - Minutes Secretary | 2011 - 2015 |
Ros Craven | 2017 - |
History of the Choir
The Chichester Cathedral Choir is particularly noted for the beautiful and gentle tone which it produces in the sympathetic acoustic of the Cathedral.
The statutes at Chichester provide 18 trebles and six lay vicars. The Choristers and probationers are educated here at The Prebendal School where, as well as their singing, Choristers learn the piano and an orchestral instrument, spending at least 18 hours a week on musical performance. The lay vicars are all professional singers.
On stage, the Choir has appeared with artists as diverse as Petula Clark, Richard Stilgoe, the King's Singers, the Cambridge Buskers, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and Cantabile. Television appearances have included Placido Domingo's Christmas Choice and Rumpole of The Bailey. In 1985, their recording of Cathedral Music by Geoffrey Burgon won a Critics' Choice of the Year award in Gramophone magazine.
The Choir regularly tours abroad, and in recent years has visited France, Northern Bavaria (Bamberg, Bayreuth, Nurenberg and Wurzburg), and makes frequent visits to Chartres. In Spring 2005, the Choir made a hugely successful tour to South Africa and in March 2010 the Choir visited and performed in Berlin.
For more information on the Cathedral Choir, please visit the Cathedral website.
Scholarship Trust Fund
Our Scholarship Trust Fund sets out to help ensure that no boy who has been offered a place in the choir is unable to accept the place due to financial hurdles.
Founded in July 2000, the Trust offers financial support to offset The Prebendal School fees, to the probationers & choristers of Chichester Cathedral, in addition to the 50% fee bursary awarded by the Dean and Chapter. The offer of a CCCA bursary is means tested and is offered for the full 5 year tenure of the boy’s place in the choir, (whilst support is still deemed necessary). The Trust currently offers 4 bursaries, three at 25% and the other at 12.5% of school fees.
The Trust is a registered charity no. 1090178 and is administered by trustees appointed by both the CCCA committee and the Cathedral Chapter.
How you can help to maintain the Cathedral Choir
Our ability to keep offering bursaries depends heavily upon the generosity of our subscribers and the astute investment of the funds by the Trustees. During the present instability of investment dividends, it is ever more important that we endeavour to maintain continued donation income.
Ideally donations should be on an on-going basis via bankers order, monthly or annually, and made by Gift Aiding, allowing us to reclaim 25p in the £ from HMRC if you are an income tax payer, thus a £20 donation is worth £25 to us and a £50 donation, £62.50. Other amounts are, of course, also very welcome, as are one-off donations, if that is your preference.
How to make donations to the CCCA Scholarship Trust
- If you are an existing subscriber to the main CCCA Association, all you need to do is increase your existing annual subscription by the amount you wish to give and complete and return the Notification / Gift Aid portion of the form (downloadable here). This excess will be transferred to the Trust.
- If you wish to offer a new donation, please complete the whole form (downloadable here) and return it to the Trust Treasurer.
- Give As You Earn
Many employers have signed up to Give As You Earn. This is an alternative way to give to charity whereby your employer deducts the sum you request from your gross (pre-tax) salary and pass it on to the charity of your choice. In itself this is no better than your donating to us directly via Gift-Aid. However there are some employers who comit to matching your giving with a sum of their own. This would therefore give an even greater income to our Scholarship Trust. If you wish to sign up to this scheme please use the following information.
Charity Name: CCCA Scholarship Trust
Address: 81 Alwyn Road, Maidenhead, SL6 5EJ
Charity No. 1090178
Bank: CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Ave., Kings Hill, West Malling, ME19 4JQ
Sort code: 40-52-40
Account No. 00013174
- Self Assessment Tax Returns
Since April 2004 people who complete a Self Assessment tax return can nominate a charity to receive all or part of any repayment due. If anyone is in this situation our unique charity code is DAD85LG. Please consider entering our code as the beneficiary of any repayments you are due.
- Everyclick Search Engine
You can raise money for Chichester Cathedral Choristers Association Scholarship Trust just by searching the web!
www.everyclick.com is an internet search engine with a big difference - it donates half its revenues to charity!
Just make https://www.everyclick.com/charity/chichestercathedralchoristersassociationscholarshiptrust?everyclick your Home page and be sure to use it whenever you search the web!
It does not cost us, or you, a penny so please use it to support Chichester Cathedral Choristers Association Scholarship Trust.
Bequests in Wills and Legacies
Have you given any thought to really being part of the future of this Cathedral’s musical foundation? We sincerely hope it will still be here and flourishing after we have all gone on to the Greater Glory. Please consider leaving our Scholarship Trust something in your Will. By so doing you can leave your mark on the cathedral choir and reduce your inheritance tax liabilities.
Did you know that by bequeathing some of your estate to our scholarship trust fund, your generosity would not diminish the amount you leave to your loved ones by as much as you might think? The normal inheritance tax rate of 40% is reduced to 36% when a legacy of 10% or more of the net value of the estate is left to charity.
Example calculations:
Gross Estate |
£ 500,000 |
£ 450,000 |
£ 400,000 |
£ 350,000 |
10% bequest of Net Value |
£ 17,500 |
£ 12,500 |
£ 7,500 |
£ 2,500 |
Reduction to other beneficiaries |
£ 4,200 |
£ 3,000 |
£ 1,800 |
£ 600 |
For further information on inheritance tax regulations please go to
https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/giving-to-charity-to-reduce-an-inheritance-tax-bill
A suitable wording for your Will would be
Residuary bequest (a proportion)
I give ____________% share of the net residue of my real and personal estate which I can dispose of by Will in any manner I think proper to Chichester Cathedral Choristers Association Scholarship Trust Fund (CCCA STF), registered charity number 1090178 of 81, Alwyn Road, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 5EJ, U.K. and the receipt of the Trustees or the proper officer for the time being of CCCA STF shall be a complete discharge to my Executors.
OR
Pecuniary bequest (a set sum)
I give the sum of £____________(figures and words) to Chichester Cathedral Choristers Association Scholarship Trust Fund (CCCA STF), registered charity number 1090178, of 81, Alwyn Road, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 5EJ, U.K. and the receipt of the Trustees or other proper officer for the time being of CCCA STF shall be a complete discharge to my Executors.
It is important to ensure that the following clause is also inserted, whichever wording you need to use:
“If at my death any charity named as a beneficiary in this Will or any Codicil hereto has changed its name or amalgamated with or transferred its assets to another body then my Executors shall give effect to any gift made to such charity as if it had been made (in the first case) to the body in its changed name or (in the second place) to the body which results from such amalgamation or to which such transfer has been made.”
Current Charity fund details are available at:
By leaving something to the Chichester Cathedral Chorister Association Scholarship Trust Fund you will personally become part of the history of this great Christian edifice, and what better memorial could you have than for the stones of this building to resound to the magnificent singing of the Choir for generations to come?
For further details or to register your interest in this scheme, please contact
The Trust Treasurer, by email to chichesterchoristers@gmail.com
or by post to 81 Alwyn Road, Maidenhead, SL6 5EJ
Thank you.
Browse through our CCCA Newsletters
2019: Spring
2018: Spring
2017: Spring
2016: Autumn
2015: Summer
2014: Spring & Autumn
2013: Spring & Autumn
2012: Spring & Autumn
2011: Spring
2010: Spring
2009: Summer
2008: September
2007: Spring & Autumn
2006: Spring & October
2005: August
2004: February & Autumn
Privacy Policy
Privacy Notice
The contact details of those affiliates of CCCA who have agreed to be on our mailing list are held by The Prebendal Associates administration. All communications from CCCA are made on our behalf by The Associates' office. The Prebendal's privacy policy can be read at https://www.prebendalschool.org.uk/11/privacy-policy.
Privacy Policy for CCCA Scholarship Trust Fund Contributors via Gift Aid
Gift Aid forms submitted by Fund contributors are retained, as is required by HMRC, whilst contributions are still being made and for seven years thereafter. They are stored in a filing binder by the Fund's Treasurer. Personal details (name and address, and where volunteered, email address and telephone number) are also entered into a specialist software program designed to enable the annual submission to HMRC to reclaim the income tax. This program is located on the Treasurer's laptop computer. Individual's details are not shared with anyone, but may be passed to HMRC at their specific request. All queries and concerns regarding this data storage should be addressed to the Trust's Treasurer via chichesterchoristers@gmail.com.