New Bishop of Bath and Wells tours city on different modes of transport

The Right Reverend Michael Beasley wanted to meet as many people as possible on the way to his service

The new Bishop of Bath and Wells has marked the beginning of his new role with a tour around Bath and Wells on different modes of transport.

The Right Reverend Michael Beasley is the 80th Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Bishop Michael spent the morning travelling on a variety of forms of transport to the cathedral, meeting as many people as he could on the way.

A special service will take place at Wells Cathedral at 15:00 GMT on 12 November.

Brought up in rural Staffordshire, Bishop Michael was ordained in 1999 and became a bishop in 2017.

Rather than making a conventional car journey to the cathedral after attending morning prayer at Bath Abbey, Bishop Michael decided to take a different approach and set out on foot to catch the bus to Odd Down Park & Ride.

Bishop Michael says the best part of his job is meeting different people

From there, he travelled by car to Peasedown St John, before swapping to an electric bike to ride through the village to the Hive Community Centre.

After meeting members of the local community, the local PCSO gave Bishop Michael a lift in his police car to the White Post in Chilcompton.

For the final leg of the journey, local haulage firm Massey Wilcox provided a vintage lorry to drop him back down to Wells in time to prepare for the service.

Bishop Michael will be formally installed as Bishop at Wells Cathedral, where he looks forward to being "welcomed by folk from all across the diocese" for an afternoon of "joy, soul and prayer".

"It's wonderful that we've got lots of different people taking part at the cathedral this afternoon," he said.

"It's extraordinary to be part of so much history and its equally extraordinary to be a part of a wonderful group of people."

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