Roger Boulton’s Story

Some lives seem to arrange themselves into a pattern without you really planning it. Roger's is definitely one of those.

I’d like to take you back to York in the 1970s, and invite you into the Minster. A nine-year-old boy has just become a chorister and is singing his heart out beneath one of England's most spectacular medieval roofs, with those great stone walls soaking up music ancient and modern. He has no idea at the time, but those soaring arches are going to be a thread running through the rest of his life.

Roger started school in a village near Lincoln, where the cathedral is part of the landscape and, for those who pay attention, an inspiring part of life. That early sense of what these buildings mean deepened when he joined the choristers after moving to York. It was a serious commitment for a young lad: a schedule of rehearsals and eight services a week on top of school lessons that would give many adults pause. But it was the start of a journey.

University brought a return to singing, then family life did what family life does and music took a back seat for a (long) while. But it never went away entirely, and when time opened up again, Roger joined a chamber choir in London. He then discovered ‘depping’, becoming a member of the 'subs bench' (the pool of singers that cathedral choirs draw on when they need an extra voice) and singing at more than 600 services across ten different cathedrals - including over 300 back in York Minster - over the next ten years.

And then there's the bike.

Roger has always cycled and, like many people, found himself riding a lot more during lockdown, rediscovering the enjoyment of getting somewhere under one’s own steam. When he heard about the Cathedrals Cycle Route, it felt like an obvious fit. A long-distance route connecting the great cathedrals of England? For someone who'd sung in them some two thousand times, it was almost made to measure.

He signed up for the York to Bradford leg - there and back again - and has since added Ripon to York, linking three cathedrals whose choirs he has ‘depped’ in. One thing he liked about this experience, as with choral singing, is how much the group element adds to it: cycling with others is just more enjoyable, and there's something genuinely uplifting about being part of a team working through a shared challenge together.

The full route is firmly on the radar for the future, and you can see why it holds a particular pull for him. It's a good reminder that the things that capture us when we're young have a habit of shaping what follows. There definitely is great satisfaction, and huge potential for adventure, in a journey that brings us full circle.