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An extract from the Friends of Wells Cathedral Newsletter Number 4 (old series from 1986).  I am indebted to Arthur Southorn, long standing Friend, for bringing this to my attention. Changes at Wells CathedralTo the casual visitor, Wells hardly seems to change. The Cathedral and the Dulcote footpath and Tor Woods and Major Henfrey and Mr Colchester are still with us, and they all look much the same as they did when I came to the College as a student 34 years ago. Yet, under the skin, Wells does change. A good example is the College mentioned above. It was here for 131 years, from 1840 to 1971. Now the students have left our local scene for Salisbury.  This has been a loss to the City and the Cathedral; and we miss the young families. The Cathedral School has changed almost out of recognition. I remember it with 240 pupils. Now there are 721, including the new pre- preparatory department. There are girls and a specialist music department; and we have a sports hall and new dining hall and kitchens, to name only a few developments.  The Canons' houses (except for the one in which my family and I live) have all become boarding houses for the School. Members of the Chapter seemed to go on forever. Dr Davis, Canon Alcock, Canon Jones or Canon Salmon appeared immortal.                  (Canon Jones is still living in Minehead at 97; but I fear his bicycle is no more.) Yet even these characters have left the scene.  Just in my time as Dean (since 1973) two Precentors, three Archdeacons of Wells, three Chancellors and three Treasurers have held sway. What shall we say of the Priest Vicars?  I was one of two, from 1957-61. Between us, we had to attend every Cathedral service in the year and serve at every week-day Eucharist.  We sang the Offices, trimmed the lamp, ordered the candles, changed the vestments and linen, guided visitors, planned the special services, steered the Canons and Prebendaries into place, and washed the sacred vessels in water which we had to carry from the Vicars' Close.  In our "spare" time we taught in the Theological College.  Our statutes still provide for a maximum of two Priest Vicars; but until 1967 that was the minimum figure allowed, which is a big change. The Lay Vicars still provide continuity by living in the Close which was built for them; and they still sing daily in term-time in the Cathedral; but now they retire at 55, whereas old Mr Wicks went on into his nineties and Mr Appleyard was nearly stone deaf! The idea of the Vicars travelling round the world giving recitals would have surprised Ralph of Shrewsbury. Meanwhile, new races of people have sprung up.  We have Welcomers and Shop-staff and restaurant-staff and library-staff and cleaning ladies and a Cathedral council and secretaries and typewriters and a book-keeper and telephones. Have the virgers escaped change?  No, they carry their pokers in a different fashion now; and they are more elegantly clad; and the Dean's Virger has become the Head Virger since 1967. Cathedral furnishings have been transformed.  The organ sprouted a case in 1974. The font-cover has been glorified.  A new nave altar and banners and copes were made in 1982.  These are among a host of changes. Many of them are due to the zeal of Canon Leslie Ward in his days as Treasurer. As for the Cathedral fabric, more work has been undertaken in the last eleven years than for several centuries.  The great campaign on the west front is nearly over; the cloisters are being restored; the high vaults of the nave and transepts look bright and triumphant again; the north porch is being cleaned and restored; the chapter house is next in line for treatment; add to all this the recent work on the Vicars' Close and the coming work on the ancient gateways, and that is quite a programme!  We never finish. People are the basis of it all.  Though we have no parish, we have seen the Sung Eucharist grow greatly in attendance; and Sunday Mattins is still with us, though reduced in size.  Evensong, with its daily music, is an important offering.  There is no comparison in the number of visitors; thirty years ago, it was a comparative trickle, with 6d to see the clock; but now we welcome at least a third of a million people every year. Are we too hectic nowadays?  Who can measure or evaluate what we do?  Do we make enough time to be still and to worship in depth?  Certainly we can be thankful for many opportunities here.  Among changes for the better are the music and widening of the repertoire and the high standards of the Choir under Mr Crossland (who will complete 25 years here, as Assistant and as Organist, in September); the development of the School under Mr Quilter (who has just left after completing 22 years as Head Master); the conclusion of the Appeal in January 1985 (after 8½ years of fund-raising); the placing of the new figure of CHRIST on the west front in 1985; the introduction of lay participation in running the Cathedral, the work of the Friends over 53 years since their founding by Dean Malden 1933. PATRICK MITCHELL(Dean of Wells 1973 to 1989) 
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