A DARTMOOR folk singer who composed a song to honour the Archangel’s Way pilgrimage walk, performed it at one of the churches on the route to mark its second anniversary.

Jim Causley took his accordion and keyboard to St Michael’s Church on Brent Tor to join in a special service.

Churchwarden Helen Harris said: “It was a fabulous evening and several members of the congregation got in touch afterwards to say that it was inspired and very moving.”

Curate Hazel Butland said: “Everything worked out well and the service was fabulous. Of course the highlight was Jim singing The Archangel Way. The song begins with our church on Brentor with verses about St Michel’s, but the original version had no mention of our nearby Christchurch in North Brentor village, although it is on the pilgrimage route.

“Much to our delight and amusement when Jim was singing, he sang the stanzas about St Michael’s and then, unexpectedly, he sang two new verses he had written about Chistchurch in the village down below the tor, especially for the service.

“As he wants to sing the song in all the churches mentioned, he now has to come back to Christchurch, hopefully for a full concert.”

Jim’s plan is to sing his song in as many of the churches on the route as possible. It was written and first performed at the official launch of the Archangel’s Way route on July 31 in 2021.

Hazel said: “Jim agreed to accompany our hymns as well. We chose two pilgrimage hymns — O Lord of My Heart and Who would true valour see to be a pilgrim, from John Bunyan’s Progress.

“Jim was delighted to accompany these hymns and they are both sung to folk tunes. Any service on St Michael’s requires careful planning. Fortunately in the summer we can get a Land Rover up Brent Tor itself, so we could transport Jim’s own keyboard and accodion up the tor to the church safely, plus his newly acquired mobile power station to provide the necessary power for his key board because the church has no mains electric.”