I WAS most interested to see the photographs of the festival that was held at Tintern Abbey on June 9, 1951. I took part in this super event as an 18-year-old chorister with the choir of St Mark, Gold Tops, Newport.

I remember proceeding along a road where our coach had parked to join the hundreds of other choristers at the abbey. In the evening, a pageant was held in which I and a good friend, Roger Parfitt, now sadly passed on, took part as Cromwellian soldiers.

If memory serves me correctly it was written by and produced by Reverend Hugh Moelwyn-Merchant. Rehearsals for various sections of the pageant were held throughout the diocese, ours being at St Lukes, Bridge Street.

John F Torrington, Allt-yr-yn Court, Newport