Carols of Padstow at Truro Cathedral - While Shepherds Watched (Lyngham)

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‘Rouse, rouse from your slumbers, prepare a glad voice. And join with those numbers that now do rejoice’.

Truro Cathedral rang to the sounds of Padstow carollers on Monday the 18th of December 2023 in a service celebrating the local historic singing tradition in Padstow.

The group of around 60 carollers, which includes at least one singer who has been singing the carols since the 1950s, are not a formal choir and meet only to sing the carols on the streets of Padstow at Christmas. They were invited by the Cathedral to sing in the latest in a series of carol services featuring local traditions. With a heart of Padstonians and drawing in singers who love the community tradition from surrounding villages, the group filled the Cathedral with four part harmonies of the seasonal songs so well loved in the Padstow community.

Organised between Padstow Old Cornwall Society, the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, and the Cathedral, with much assistance from Truro Old Cornwall Society President Bert Biscoe, the service was a resounding success and enjoyed by the many who attended. Guests included Nev Meek, President of the FOCS; Pol Hodge, Grand Bard of Gorsedh Kernow; Linda Taylor, Leader of Cornwall Council; Martin Alvey, Cornwall Council Portfolio holder for Environment and Climate Change; Dr Garry Tregidga, Co-director of the Institute of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter; Ian Bell, Chairman of Cornwall Family History Society, and Jowdy Davey from Lowender. The service was livestreamed over YouTube by the Cathedral, reaching Cornish diaspora communities in the USA, Australia, and even further afield. The recording remains available to watch online here.

The Padstow carollers traditionally ‘strike sound’ every Advent Sunday, where they walk the streets to sing outside and inside pubs, visit people in their homes, and on Christmas Eve, visit the Prideaux-Brune family at their historic home at Prideaux Place. They also support seasonal community events and groups such as the Padstow Christmas lights switch-on. The Padstow carol book, titled Strike Sound, was published in 1971 and was republished by the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies in 2017, and is available through the Federation bookshop.