Meet Canon Simon Tatton Brown You may not know Simon personally but, chances are, you have seen him cycling up and down Bloomfield Road as he does most days; sometimes several times a day. No electric bike for him; in his eighth decade Simon still pedals a push bike up our hill! Simon came to Bath in 2014 having retired as the Vicar of St. Andrew’s Church in Chippenham. He had become familiar with Bath while singing with a local choir, finding our city had everything he desired for his retirement. And yet his home backs onto the peaceful Tumps Woodland. He particularly likes the fact that he can be town 10 minutes after leaving home. The return journey up the hill takes a bit longer! He may be retired but Simon is a very busy man. He sings with the choir at Christ Church (where he worships), and with CitySound Voices and Lucis choirs. He is active with The Friends of the Tumps woodland, is a Community Speed Watch volunteer, serves as a Trustee for a charity which reaches out to isolated people in Corsham, and convenes a U3A German conversation group. He also belongs to informal cycling and walking groups. Born in Southampton, after boarding school Simon went to Cambridge to study Theology. At University he joined a group of students who were invited to spend time inside an open borstal (young offenders institution), which led him, on graduation, to train as a probation officer. He worked mainly in south Manchester, before joining the team setting up Community Service by Offenders (now Community Payback) covering the whole city. In 1976 he left to study for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection at Mirfield. He was ordained to a curacy in Ashton-under Lyne in 1979. Subsequently he was vicar of two parishes in Greater Manchester before coming south to Chippenham in 2000. There’s a lot more to ordained ministry than taking services and pastoral work and much of it has to be picked up on the job. His parish church in Westhoughton was burned to the ground by arsonists in 1991. He had to quickly learn how to supervise a building project costing £1m. He was also a governor of two schools, one of which needed to be completely rebuilt on a new site and the other have a large extension added on. More building projects to supervise, now worth £2.5m and all while running a parish with a three churches in it. So it’s not surprising that in the winter of 1996-97 he took three months sabbatical leave, teaching ordinands at a theological college in Mombasa. Nor was he done with east Africa. When he moved to Chippenham he was active in the Bristol-Uganda church link, visiting that country three times. Today Simon loves to travel. He enjoys cycling holidays most years. Nowadays they are mostly in Europe, but over the years he has cycled in several countries in south-east Asia and even Mongolia. In Bath he immerses himself in the cultural life of the city, not just singing in choirs but attending theatre and lectures & also as a Mayor’s Guide. And as a retired priest he occasionally leads worship at Christ Church and elsewhere as required. So if you are out on Bloomfield Road one day & see Simon cycling past please say “Hello” to One Amazing Neighbour!