Peter and I moved to Billingham in May, 1971 and began attending Mass at Holy Rosary. Father David Head was the Parish Priest and Father Pat O'Connell was his curate. Until I was received into the Catholic Church in April, 1971 I was a member of my local Methodist Chapel, along with my family. The introduction to the Methodist Hymnal at that time began with the words 'Methodism was born in song' and hymn singing had always been (and still is) important to me. It was a real pleasure to hear the congregation singing the first week we were at Mass in Holy Rosary. I think the old Westminster Hymnal was still in use so often we sang hymns which weren't in the book from sheets printed on what was obviously a rather inky Gestetner machine.

The choir had been formed in the 1960s by Father John Skivington, who was then a curate in the Parish. By the time we arrived, Father Skivington had moved on but the choir - and the choral society were thriving under the leadership of Martin Wing and the organist, Cath Kelly, who every week at the end of Mass played a rousing piece of music as a recessional. I particularly remember The Grand March from Aida' and 'The arrival of the Queen of Sheba'. In those days there was a pulpit at the left hand side of the front pew and Martin would conduct the congregational hymns from there. The church choir members remained downstairs with their families until they had received Holy Communion, at which point they moved upstairs to sing a four part Latin Motet and the final hymn.

In 1973 Cath Kelly and her family moved away and I volunteered to be the organist. It was a very steep learning curve. However, I managed to survive (just about) and everyone was really kind to me. The choir must have been 24 members strong - at least when I ordered new music that's how many copies I sent for. We met on a Wednesday evening to practice for the following Sunday. There was a wealth of talent in the choir. Several of them could have given any professional singer a run for their money. Patsy Fox (uncle of Jeremy) was a fantastic tenor, very much in demand as a wedding soloist. Cath Welch and Mary Boynton had strong operatic voices and the alto line-Mamie O'Neill, Elizabeth Clark, May Carroll, Kath Gilby and Ann Menezes never faltered. I remember with great affection all the other choir members at the time too, many of them related to each other. There were several mother and daughter groupings-mother Mary Boynton (as we called her) and 'little Mary' (now Mary Toth), May and Lynne Carroll, Sheila and Mary McCabe, Sheila and Cecilia Kane, Mary and Catherine Devlin (Catherine is still in the choir now). Other sopranos were Vera Kell, Joyce Wilson, Joan Flanagan, Paddy Fox, Olive Irving, Betty Wing and Kath Spencer. I can never thank them enough for the help and friendship they gave me, particularly after the arrival of our son Stuart, a very poorly baby - it was a common sight to see one of the ladies singing away, with the music for a Latin motet in one hand and a baby slung over her other shoulder.

As well as Patsy Fox the tenor line consisted of Terry McCabe, lan Menezes, Terry Devlin and Jack Tippey, while the basses were Tom Clark, Arthur Ryan and Phil Terry. Many church choir members also sang in the choral society and Cath Kelly continued as their accompanist. They sang around the area, raising money for many charities and I believe, although I never heard it, they gathered by tradition to sing The Easter Hymn from Cavaliera Rusticana in the Catholic Club on Easter Sunday evening for many years.

In May, 1980 the choir and choral society celebrated their 20th anniversary with a Mass and dinner and many past members joined the existing choir and choral for what was a great evening. I am enclosing the list that was compiled at the time - many of them were names I did not recognise but there were many familiar names there too. I notice the name of Jack Simpson in the list of basses his son and daughter in law, Bill and Jane Simpson sing in the choir now. Jane Murray was a member of the original choir too and she is a member of the choir today. Jeremy McMurray's mum Kit sang in the choir, as well as his relatives, Patsy, Paddy and Damian Fox and Monty Sharp. We did have another celebration some years later and although I don't remember the date of that, what I do remember is that we combined both choir and choral to sing Faure's Requiem in several churches around the area and that we had a celebration dinner in the Swan.

There were so many good times and good fellowship although in the church choir we sometimes had quite heated discussions on whether some of the more modern hymns were suitable - several suggestions disappearing without trace after certain choir members refused point blank to consider singing them.

One of my favourite memories (although it has very little to do with music) happened one year at the Easter Vigil. Godfrey O'Neill was the chief altar server then and quite early on in the Mass he was standing next to the lectern when he got too close to a candle and the back of his cotta caught fire. He was oblivious at first until Martin Wing intoned quite audibly 'Lumen Godfrey' and then the other altar servers rushed to put the fire out. (luckily the only thing that was hurt was Godfrey's dignity) Up in the choir Godfrey's wife (Mamie) went into fits of laughter and the rest of us soon joined her. For the remainder of the Mass every now and then someone would start to giggle and we would all be off again.

All good things come to an end and after 17 years the baton was passed to Jeremy who, like Cath Kelly, is a fantastic organist. The choir continues and is a great asset to the parish.