In August 2021, I was contacted by a tuba player I know asking if I was interested in helping a few residents of Swarland who wanted to start some sort of singing group. I thought it might be fun, so went up there one afternoon and met some very lovely residents. We organised to have a practice on a Wednesday might in the club there, and I would bring along some music in various styles and with different levels of difficulty, and see how we went.

Four months later and we’ve just done our first performance – four carols at the Swarland Village Carols Round The Christmas Tree event last night.

By mid-October we were settled in our home at the club and at our 6pm time slot and they plumped for a name: Swarland Choir, and we made a little video to tempt new members in!

We don’t just sing Christmas songs, I should add. So far we’re really enjoying a wide variety including spirituals, folk songs and some Abba. We’ve started a little of Thomas Tallis and we’ll get back to that in the new year. This next video snippet is of one of our folk songs – from South Africa.

There are 13 of us at the moment: one bass, three tenors, two altos and six sopranos and we like to have a laugh as well as a sing, and what a splendid bunch of people I’ve got to know over these few weeks. It’s been an absolute joy, and the prospect of more singing and laughter to come in 2022 is a very cheery one indeed.