Farewell to Tim—An Appreciation by Dr Litman

Well, what can one say about our much loved Verger…

I have been fortunate these last 18 months to work closely with Tim. He has been a real stalwart and worker of the Cathedral, equally happy up ladders, on the roof, cleaning the floors, moving altars, waving his verge around or asleep in his stall after too much lunch at Evensong (-he has become the stuff of legend to the Choristers). We are all used to seeing him around, boiler suit, braces or in his gowns, and he will be greatly missed. Choral Evensong has been his real forte; he commands Bishops, Deans, Clergy, Congregation and Musicians with great ease and all with a wry smile. His fondness of tinkering with any kind of machine is well known and respected in Peel.

So, we wish him well for the future, I for one (as will many) will miss him and the tasks he just gets on with as a matter of form. One little anecdote before he leaves...One day Tim was cleaning the roof of the porch when his ladder fell, phoneless (and helpless) he sat on top of the porch roof for hours until a German tourist came in and then he had to use a mixture of shouted slow English and sign language to retrieve his ladder for a dignified descent...all we can say is, shaking our head...that Verger…!

Dr Peter Litman