And finally...

On this trip south I've so far been to a football match, a motor show, an art gallery and a youth football training session. Tonight, with a feeling of coming home, I was at a concert - in this church, Croydon Minster, which I'd not even heard of but which was a familiar sort of setting for the music I love best. The Sixteen were singing Byrd, Tallis and Arvo Pert and it was glorious.

Croydon Minster is believed to have been founded in Saxon times, since there is a record of “a priest of Croydon” in 960, although the first record of a church building is in Domesday Book (1086). The church has had close links with the Archbishops of Canterbury who had a Palace in Croydon. Much of that building still stands next to the Minster and is now the Old Palace of John Whitgift School. Six Archbishops of Canterbury are buried in the Minster and many more would have worshipped here. Kings and queens were regular visitors to the archbishops at Croydon - visits by Henry VII, Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I are all well documented. Ten bishops have been consecrated here and the church continues to be regularly used for ordinations and major diocesan and civic services, as well as for the daily parish worship.

So now you know ...