TWO new girl choristers have joined Salisbury Cathedral Choir.

Nine-year-olds Marie-Therese Rodrigues from Stockbridge and Susannah Thomasson from Romsey were bumped up into the Girls’ Choir and presented with their medallions (which symbolise the support that donors and benefactors give to the Girls’ Choir) by the Very Revd June Osborne, Dean of Salisbury Cathedral.

The bumping ceremony, which took place during Evensong, is different from the boys’ bumping-up ceremony in that they are bumped on the head by the Dean’s and Precentor’s Choristers with a huge Book of Common Prayer rather than having their head bumped on the stone.

Like the boys, the girls are welcomed into the choir with the words: ‘We bump you a chorister of Salisbury Cathedral. We welcome you!’

To which the other girl choristers respond ‘We welcome you!’

Salisbury Cathedral was the first cathedral to form a separate and independent foundation for girl choristers and sang their first services on October 1991.

Since then they have shared weekly services equally with the Salisbury Cathedral boys’ choir.