Many clergymen these days fail to get round to introducing themselves, citing overwork and the trend towards multi-parish livings. You could say the flock is too large for the shepherd to cope.

But this can’t be levelled against the distinguished-looking, bearded cleric Bob Wilkes, priest-in-charge of St Michael at the Northgate and City Rector of Oxford, who in an earlier incarnation was the Very Rev Robert Wilkes, Dean of Birmingham Cathedral.

On Tuesday, ignoring freezing conditions, he was calling at shops in the city centre, shaking hands and having a word and a joke with everyone he met, continuing something he had been doing at every opportunity since his arrival last November. An old school ‘people parson’.

On the face of it, this is quite a task, but he’s not afraid of a challenge – as proved when someone said he wouldn’t dare call, decked in his dog collar, at the Ann Summers sexy lingerie shop in Clarendon Centre.

But after 10 years in Afghanistan with the International Ministry Association when the Russians were still there and, more recently, risking a night in Birmingham’s notorious Broad Street, that was kids’ stuff.

IT is not overstating the fact to say lots of people were miffed when the Corner Club found itself homeless after the doors of what is still known as the QI building in Turl Street were closed shortly before Christmas.

Some 400 people were denied their favourite place to meet, eat and drink, including Oxford author and artist Sara Banerji. But often, when one door closes, another is flung open – in this case a stout door that was at one time securely bolted.

Mrs Banerji spoke to Andrew Creese, general manager of the Malmaison Hotel, once Oxford’s formidable prison, and he suggested use of the large Visitors’ Room on the third floor. Already about 200 displaced club members have shown interest. Mr Creese has even set aside Thursday, January 28, at 6.30pm for a welcoming party.

Of course, a new start in a new location calls for a new name. What else could it be but The Lags Club?

THE words ‘NOT THIS’, expertly carved in capital letters 10ft high in the snow on the meadow below Magdalen Bridge, appeared last Thursday after the arrival of the white stuff. What was its message?

On Tuesday the words were still there and I chanced to spot the artist Tom Kemp sprucing them up by removing snow deposited by recent falls.

“What do the words mean?” I asked.

“That’s the question. What do they mean?” he replied with a beaming smile. (Artists can be so obscure.) I pressed for an answer. Why those words? “Why not?” he replied. I know when I’m beaten.