Pilgrim Cello
All 42 English cathedrals. With a cello. On a bike.
In 2022 I strapped my cello to the back of a 50-year-old Dawes Galaxy bicycle and cycled from Hadrian’s Wall to Rome, performing every day on the way. The book about this journey is called Highway Cello.
In Lent 2024 I performed a Meditation on the Seven Last Words of Jesus in about thirty churches. The work consists of meditative poems on the seven last sayings of Jesus on the cross, interleaved with the slow movements from the Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach.
Together these two ideas have inspired the Pilgrim Cello journey – a pilgrimage around the 42 English cathedrals, by bicycle, performing the Seven Last Words Meditation in nearly all of them.
Pilgrim Cello also includes a collaboration with artist Gillian Lever (www.leverarts.org). Resulting from a creative dialogue starting in 2024 Gillian developed a set of seven small Seven Last Words abstract paintings that were exhibited as an integral part of each Meditation. The Seven Last Words paintings made the journey on my bike in a specially designed reliquary.
The pilgrimage began in Newcastle on 19 May 2025, and concluded in Carlisle seven weeks later.
A new bike!
Sadly, the Dawes Galaxy had to be put into retirement. It really wasn’t up to a 2,000 mile journey. I wasn’t sure I was either, but I bought a new bike – an Omnium Cargo. It’s long and heavy, and the cello goes on the front where I can see it, and it’s much lower down, where it’s safer. We survived!
Tour Dates
Here’s the schedule of Pilgrim Cello performances:
| Cathedral | Date |
|---|---|
| Newcastle | Mon 19 May, 2.00pm |
| Durham | Tues 20 May, 1.15pm |
| Ripon | Weds 21 May, 2.00pm |
| York | Thur 22 May, 1.00pm |
| Bradford | Fri 23 May, 3.00pm |
| Wakefield | Sat 24 May, 2.00pm |
| Sheffield | Sun 25 May, 12.15pm |
| Lincoln | Mon 26 May, 3.00pm |
| Southwell | Tues 27 May, 1.30pm |
| Derby | Weds 28 May 2.00pm |
| Leicester | Thur 29 May, 3.00pm |
| Peterborough | Tues 18 Mar, 2.30pm* |
| Ely | Sun 1 June, 1.00pm |
| Norwich | Mon 2 June, 3.00pm |
| St. Edmundsbury | Tues 3 June, 6.15pm |
| Chelmsford | Weds 4 June, 6.30pm |
| St. Albans | Thur 5 June, 6.30pm |
| St. Paul’s | No performance |
| Southwark | Sat 7 June, 11.00am |
| Rochester | Tues 8 April, 12.30pm* |
| Canterbury | Mon 9 June, 12.00noon |
| Guildford | Tues 10 June, 3.00pm |
| Chichester | Weds 11 June, 1.00pm |
| Portsmouth | Thur 12 June, 1.10pm |
| Winchester | Fri 13 June, 1.15pm |
| Salisbury | Fri 14 Mar, 12.30pm* |
| Exeter | Sun 15 June, 12.00noon |
| Truro | Tues 17 June, 1.00pm |
| Wells | Fri 20 June, 3.30pm |
| Bristol | Sat 21 June, 2.00pm |
| Oxford | Sun 22 June, 7.00pm |
| Gloucester | Mon 23 June, 3.00pm |
| Hereford | Tues 24 June, 2.30pm |
| Worcester | Thur 26 June, 12.15pm |
| Coventry | Fri 27 June, 3.00pm |
| Birmingham | No performance |
| Lichfield | Mon 17 March, 1.30pm* |
| Chester | Mon 30 June, 2.00pm |
| Liverpool | Tues 15 April, 1.30pm* |
| Manchester | Weds 2 July, 2.00pm |
| Blackburn | Thur 3 July, 1.00pm |
| Carlisle | Fri 4 July, 2.00pm |
*These performances were out of sequence. The cathedral diaries were too busy to accommodate the Meditation within the pilgrimage schedule, so special visits were made to them, mostly in Lent (not by bicycle, sorry!)
The Pilgrim Cello blog
I wrote an occasional blog during the lead-up to the journey, and a more-or-less daily blog during the pilgrimage itself.
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