A HAMPSHIRE choir is hosting a special concert to celebrate 200 years of the RNLI. 

TakeNOTE Chamber Choir, drawn from singers across the county, is joining local RNLI fundraisers to mark the occasion at St Paul's Church, Winchester, on Friday, July 5 at 7.30pm. 

Sir William Hillary founded the organisation in a London tavern on March 4 1824. Over the two centuries since, the RNLI’s volunteer crews and lifeguards have saved more than 146,000 lives. That’s an average of two every day for 200 years. 

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Carolyn Robson, music director, with some TakeNOTE singers at the Theatre Royal Winchester last February (Image: Contributed)

The concert's programme features folk songs about rivers and oceans. The choir will open with a celebration of the seasons of the year in songs from the 13th to the 19th century. But in the second half of the concert, they are fully afloat with shanties and sea songs.

Carolyn Robson, TakeNOTE’s music director, said: “We’re proud to be fundraising for the RNLI at our summer concert and we’ve chosen some great songs from the British Isles and North America to capture the mood of the sea and seasons.”

Tickets cost £10 and are available from ticketsource.co.uk/takenote-chamber-choir and on the door.