ON Saturday, October 22, the West Gallery Quire of Crediton and the Beaminster Quire from Dorset came together at Silverton Parish Church in a celebratory concert.

The focus was on an old musical instrument, the serpent, which used to accompany the singing in country churches in the early nineteenth century.

The occasion for the concert was the finding, last summer, of a broken serpent in some hitherto unexplored recess in Bickleigh Parish Church.

The serpent-player from Crediton, Clavell Tripp, and the leader of the Beaminster Quire, also a serpent-player, gathered a group of musicians to examine the remains.

So good a time was had by all, including a fine lunch at Bickleigh Mill and a refreshing sing in the church, that they decided a full concert in nineteenth-century costume in Silverton was in order.

And in the meantime various efforts to make the ancient serpent produce a sound bore fruit.

In general one person blows furiously into it and blasts out the bass line, but in this instance it took three people with Ron Emett, leader of the Beaminster Gallery Quire, fingering the notes on the ancient pipe, Clavell Tripp blowing mightily into a piece of steel tubing with a mouthpiece on it, and Claire Willman, leader of the Crediton West Gallery Quire, holding the two parts together.

Astonishingly, Clavell and Ron managed to play Luther’s famous hymn tune "A Mighty Fortress is Our God."

The West Gallery Quire of Crediton meets to play and sing together every other Thursday in St Lawrence’s Chapel.

Anyone can join. For details please contact Clare Bainbridge on 01363 777220 or email: [email protected] .