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Christopher Gibbons (1615-76) This month we celebrate the 350th anniversary of Christopher Gibbons, who died at Westminster on 20 October 1676 aged 61, and is buried in the Abbey cloisters. The name doubtless has a familiar ring, although few will know much more than the oft-repeated text-book epithet ‘…the son of…’ Tragically, the great Orlando Gibbons died when his son Christopher was only nine; Christopher’s mother would pass away some thirteen months on, leaving him doubl

Our dear National Anthem is now forever going to trip me up… One of my favourite early manuscript books is one with the decidedly unpromising title GB-WB P14. But, in fact, this is an impressive Tenor Choirbook from the Chained Library of Wimborne Minster, located in the equally impressive 14th-century Treasury Tower, high above the church’s south transept. Very much worth a visit, by the way: founded in 1686, it is evidently one of the earliest chained libraries in England,