Another secret

Another secret

Another of my secrets has been unravelled

The other day, nice Mr Steve was looking at one of my beams (he obviously had nothing better to do) and spotted some scratchings.  Some of this appeared, he thought, to be chorister initials, or maybe the initials of a former organ player or two

Then he looked more closely and spotted the number 60, etched in to the timber

Looking at another horizontal beam, which folk already realised has my real name 2412 (but we much prefer Hillie don't we?) etched in, he realised that there was the number 61 etched in at one end, where it joins one of my upright, main pillars

Bingo!! (or should that be "bourdon"?).  These are numbers made by Mr William, in 1911, to help his team of men put me together!

The secret, now revealed, is that I am a kit girl.  I was put together in Mr William's London workshop, then before taken apart for bringing here to my lovely Abbey, they etched numbers onto my beams where they join other beams, to help with reconstruction

So, yes, I came here as a kit;  flatpacked is the word!  Its almost as if I could have been bought in a supermarket!  (No Hillie, you're far too grand an old lady for that  -  Ed).  And all those clever men who built me here on the north side of the new extension by Mr John (Loughborough Pearson) just had to match the numbers etched in by Mr William.  He was so clever, and later this year, everyone will begin to realise just how clever he was! 





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