A SPECIAL service of Choral Evensong will be held at Salisbury Cathedral on Monday, June 3 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the coronation of the Queen.

The choir will sing O taste and see, which was sung at the coronation in 1953, and prayers and thanksgiving will offered for Her Majesty, her reign, and for her 60 years of service.

There is a further special celebration during Evensong at 5.30pm on Thursday,June 20. In 1953 The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) was asked to select 20 boy choristers from RSCM-affiliated choirs to sing at the coronation service.

The boys came from all corners of the country and spent a month at Addington Palace, Croydon - former home of the RSCM - to prepare for the service together with some choristers from cathedral choirs.

In recognition of their contribution the RSCM, now based in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close, has invited those choristers to re-unite in Salisbury on Thursday, June 20 to attend Evensong at the Cathedral including Dennis Whitehead, former lay vicar of the cathedral, who was one of those specially selected choristers.