The life of a Head Verger
/Colin Tolhurst writes of his duties as Head Verger. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 2018/2019.
In September 1996 I saw the intriguing advertisement for the post of Part-time Verger. It read “must have a head for heights”. I applied for the post, got the job and four-and-a-half years later was promoted to Head Verger, becoming the youngest Head Verger in the country. I see my role as ensuring that all services and events are facilitated and run smoothly and safely and that the building is an open and welcoming place for everyone, whether regular members of the congregation or visitors with my team of vergers. However, over the years I have taken on more and more responsibilities and unusual events which spring to mind are the time the Police and I caught youths smoking marijuana in the Belfry or the early-morning visit from undertakers who had the wrong body in the coffin.
I am sure you may agree that finding a Verger when you need one is impossible and if I had a pound for every time I heard someone say “Vergers are like busses ...” I would be very rich but we have a current team of six full-time posts, with two posts split into two, giving a total of eight vergers, including me. I have to have at least two vergers on duty every single day of the year. The working day begins at 7 am (8 am on Saturdays) and finishes at 6.30 pm during the week or 5.30 pm at weekends. These are our standard operating hours but they will be extended for an evening event or service.
If I had a pound for every time I heard someone say “Vergers are like busses ...”
The core element of the Verger’s job is defined by the weekly pattern of worship, which culminates in the Cathedral Eucharist on a Sunday morning. First duties of the day are to unlock the building and get the Cathedral ready for morning services. Alarms, lighting, heating, candles, silverware, choirs, workmen, snow, water-ingress, fused lighting, vandalism, undertakers and any number of other variable occurrences can be thrown into the mix to catch us off guard. Having got the final items in place for the morning services attention is then given to the King’s School, to ensure that all is up and running for them, before being on hand to support the arrival of the various volunteer groups. The team will then work through a list of tasks, the contents of which are determined by the activity which is due to take place that day or in the coming days. The late shift begins at 9.30 am and carries through until 6.30 pm, or later depending upon what is going on. Last duties of the day include emptying the money-boxes, preparing for Evensong or Evening Prayer, setting up for the next day, locking up and setting the alarms.
A ceremonial role
Vergers have a ceremonial role to play within services and also stage-manage the drama of the liturgy. Delivering a big service in the Cathedral is like live theatre. We need to ensure liturgical props are in the right place when they need to be. We operate the sound system, liaise with Stewards and are the link between the cast (the clergy and choir), back-stage and the congregation in the front of house. I am incredibly proud of the team in that they continually
meet deadlines even when the pressures on them are huge and yet they keep delivering the whole time. We treat each service with respect and dignity and need to be ready to respond to an emergency or incident which might occur at any given time. The aim of the role is to ensure that priority is given to the core of our job, which is delivering the daily patterns of workshop. However, at the same time we still have to be ready to deal with the unexpected, which could be a problem visitor, activation of the fire-alarm or a blocked toilet.
Christmas Eve is probably the busiest and longest day of the year for the team. On Christmas Eve, I generally start work at 8.30 am and finish at 2.30 am the following day after Midnight Mass. Midnight Mass is a very popular service and we often attract a full house of 1,100 people. Communion for that number is a big logistical operation. Thankfully it is only once a year but there are plenty of other days in the year when we can be equally busy with a royal visit, an education event or a concert.
The front line
We are a front-line team which deals with all the problem visitors which a free-to-enter public and open building can attract. Unfortunately we have had many incidents involving people with mental-health conditions and drug problems. We often face aggressive and violent behaviour towards us and in the past I have been threatened with a mallet, had verbal abuse thrown at me and had to use first-aid on someone who had cut their wrists in an attempt to commit suicide.
We regularly find used syringes around the outside of the building and have to be sure to deal with these properly. We get support from the Police and are part of the Safer Medway Partnership Scheme, where we are in radio-link with other businesses in Medway, and we have a direct link into the CCTV Control Centre. I have to be aware of the terrorism threat and we are linked in with the South-East Counter-Terrorism Unit and the English Cathedrals’ Security Network. We really do have to be aware of our surroundings and we try our best to ensure the safety of visitors, staff and the 300 plus volunteers who work in the Cathedral.
I am also the Health and Safety Manager for the Cathedral. We have fire evacuation plans, risk assessments and method statements in place to cover the wide variety of public and in-house activities and we keep these under review. We work closely with the Fire and Rescue Service and they frequently visit the Cathedral and undertake familiarisation briefings with their various crews and every few years they carry out a full training exercise.
During the course of the week there are often maintenance tasks which need to be carried out by the vergers, like repairing the Crib figures for example, or lamp maintenance. On the subject of lamp maintenance, what is the answer to that most burning question “How many Vergers does it take to change a light bulb?” Well the answer depends largely upon where the light bulb is and, if it happens to be on the Triforium, the high-level gallery walkway which runs around the Cathedral, then it could take up to three of us. To reach this one member of the team will fit themselves out in a full body-harness and climbing helmet and be connected to the safely-line; a second person will be deployed to the ground spot to keep people out of the drop-zone; and a third person will be ready to rescue the person on the Triforium should they fall. We are required to have a line rescue plan in place and a few of us are trained in this procedure. Should someone fall, suspension trauma is a real risk as they will be hanging off the line with the harness cutting the blood supply from the main arteries around the groin. The rescue plan is deployed and the abseiling kit is taken to the Triforium, where the main rope and back-up safety rope are connected to the designated fixing points in each area. The person responsible for implementing the rescue will then lower themselves on the rope to reach their colleague, who is then clipped onto the rescuer’s harness and their line is then cut and the rescuer then lowers them both to the floor. Fortunately we have never had to deploy the plan and none of us wants to be in the position to have to. Nonetheless we are ready should the need ever arise.
“How many vergers does it take to change a light bulb?”
To assist the core team in this mountain of work I have two cleaners and a number of casual staff under the banner of the Events Team which helps with the heavy work of preparing the building for whichever event is taking place, such as moving chairs to the right position and then clearing them away afterwards or erecting staging and generally resourcing the event as required and the Events Team has become an invaluable resource over the years. Without a good team around me it would be impossible to do my job. But, as with any team there comes the administration which is generated. I am also a member of the Capital Project Board where we keep the architect’s Quinquennial Inspection under review and oversee the delivery of building projects on the Cathedral and its estate.
As you can probably sense, my role as Head Verger at Rochester Cathedral is massive and there are different challenges every day. I do however enjoy all that is thrown at me. My main aim is to allow the Cathedral to be used by all facets of the community and to ensure that those attending a service, concert, school visit, guided tour or just the casual visitor will have a positive experience of the Cathedral.
It really is a great privilege to be serving the Cathedral and Rochester in this unique way. I hope that this has given a small insight into what life is like for me working at the Cathedral. My department and I are in a unique position in that we get to see how important the Cathedral is to all who visit, worship, volunteer and work there. Sometimes it feels like the Cathedral is a big cake which everyone wants a slice of and that we are in the middle of it all but I shall leave you to decide whether the Vergers’ Department is the cherry on the top or the soggy bottom beneath!
Colin Tolhurst
Head Verger
The Friends of Rochester Cathedral were founded to help finance the maintenance of the fabric and grounds. The Friends’ annual reports have become a trove of articles on the fabric and history of the cathedral.
Canons, colleagues, volunteers and staff have shared their memories and reflections in many forms over the years.
