A PIANIST asked to try out a baby grand donated to a Glastonbury church discovered to her amazement she had tickled its ivories almost 50 years ago in a palace.

Rachel Knoedler took her hands of the keys after just two minutes of playing the piano in St Benedict's Church.

"I've played this piano before in the 70s, at Blenheim Palace," Rachel told amazed onlookers.

At the time, she was studying at Oxford and at weekends volunteered at Blenheim, where she kept all the pianos tuned, including the baby grand in a Norwegian woman's apartment.

The story was confirmed by the member of the congregation at St Ben's, who had donated the piano.

The coincidences continued when Rachel revealed she was born in Meare and her father, the Rev Kenneth Puddy, was the vicar at St Mary’s in the 1950s.

She has travelled extensively since those early years but is now settled back in Glastonbury.

More recently Rachel has played regularly at The Pump Room, Bath.

She will be playing in St Ben’s at cream tea events on Saturdays, August 7 and 21, from 2pm to 4pm.