A TRADITION not practised in Wellington for 150 years was revived on Saturday (June 27) as part of St John’s Parish Church patronal weekend festival.

Hundreds of people joined in ‘clipping the tower’, processing around the outside of the church and joined hands to encircle it.

People were blessed by the rector the Rev Colin Simpson as they were led through a willow archway next to the main door where ‘Bishop Blaize’ and ‘St Brigit’ also greeted them.

Although widespread in past centuries, the practice died out in the mid-1800s and St John’s is believed to be the only church in the Westcountry to have re-established it.

The multi-faith event was planned by Wellington Folk and Custom Society, which has been reviving many of the town’s age-old customs which had long since died out.

It also holds a ‘Blaize and Brigit’ night annually where members become for a year ‘Bishop Blaize’, the patron saint of wool-combers, and ‘St Brigit’, patron saint of spinners/weavers, to reflect Wellington’s historic connections with the woollen mill trade.

‘Clipping’ the church tower comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning to ‘clasp or embrace’ something.

Mr Simpson said the patronal festival gathering was about ‘gratitude, community, and love’.

The afternoon also involved ringing the church bells, performances by Bootstrap Border Morris, a number of stalls inside the building by organisations incuding Wellington Museum, the Friends of Wellington Hospital, and Transition Town Wellington, followed by drinks and snacks.

There was also a training bell to give visitors a taste of bellringing, with some going one step further, 62 steps, actually, to climb to the ringing chamber where they were able to chime a bell before climbing more steps to see the bells for themselves.

On Sunday, a 9.30 am communion service was scheduled, and the patronal festival concluded with Ad Hoc Voices performing evensong at 5.30 pm.