TAUNTON'S newest vicar will officially take up his post at two churches next week.

The Rev Tobie Osmond will be licensed at St Mary Magdalene on Thursday, October 31 - his role also covers St John the Evangelist.

The Rev Osmond is already known in Taunton, having started out in the Church as a curate at St George's, Wilton, and St Michael's, Galmington.

He has also worked at Bath Abbey and served in two churches near the town of Barrie, in Canada.

The Rev Osmond has been until now vicar of St Thomas' Church, Wells.

He grew up in Cleeve, between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol, where he went to school at St Mary Radcliffe.

He studied rural resource management at Plymouth University, during which time he spent six months in Zambia evaluating the agricultural resettlement programme.

The Rev Osmond, who got the calling to become a priest at the age of 12, trained for the Church at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford from 1996.

His hobbies are skiing, motorcycling and films. He has trained people in advanced first aid on ski hills and instructed people in riding motorbikes to an advanced standard.

When he moves into the new vicarage at St Mary's, he plans to get a black Labrador.