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The Organ - 2003 onwards
Article Index
2003 Onwards
In 2002, following on from a year of study and investigation, the PCC agreed to a number of improvements and extensions to the organ. The Diocesan Organ Advisor was consulted and a faculty obtained. The work was completed in March 2003.
The rebuild of 1977 was a generally good compromise between size, cost and flexibility and gave us the organ we had up until this time. Although the organ had a relatively small number of stops, the majority are of excellent quality and very well voiced.
However there were also a number of shortcomings. The pedal department was very basic having only one rank of pipes. Secondly, there was a lack of power for leading large congregations. Thirdly, there was a lack of variety in the available soft stops especially on the Great. Lastly, there were no modern playing aids such as adjustable thumb and toe pistons.
As a result of this, the intention was to improve significantly the pedal department, to add to the flexibility of both manuals with a few well-chosen stops both loud and soft and to add modern playing aids. The aim was to enable a proper balance of sound between manuals and pedals at all volume levels. We were not trying to emulate a cathedral organ, only trying to bring the size and flexibility of the organ (acoustically) into keeping with the size of the building and of the congregations.
The current cost of pipe organs was (and is) very high. However the development of hybrid organs had become increasingly popular - This approach adds stops that are electronically created to the existing pipe stops. Even large organs such as that in Blackburn Cathedral have used this approach to add the sound of very expensive deep pedal stops.
The specification is given below - additional stops are in italic
Great
|
Swell
|
Pedal
| Open Wood | 16 |
| Bourdon | 16 |
| Octave | 8 |
| Bass Flute | 8 |
| Flute | 4 |
| Fagotto (from Swell) | 16 |
| Trombone | 16 |
5 thumb pistons to Great - 5 thumb pistons to Swell
5 general thumb pistons
Reversible thumb pistons for all couplers
Reversible thumb pistons for Trumpet and Tuba
Capture and cancellation thumb pistons
8 piston memories
Automatic temperature-compensated pitch matching
Full MIDI In and Out functionality
* The Solo Tuba is played from the Swell manual. When it is drawn, only the tuba plays from the Swell manual, however any other stops drawn on the Swell will continue to play through the Swell to Great and Swell to Pedal couplers.
The rebuild was completed in March 2003 at a cost of slightly less than £12,000 and the reopening concert by David Briggs took place on 6th June 2003. David returned to give another recital on 16th July 2010.
By 2018 the condition of the organ was deteriorating quite badly. The keyboards and pedalboard were on their last legs with an increasing number of 'sticky' notes. The action had become very noisy as the leathers hardened and maintaining tuning was ever more problematic. All of this was of course down to age - the soundboards were now well over 100 years old and the leatherwork nearly 50.
In 2025, with ever increasing problem, something had to be done. The pipe part of the organ was continually becoming ever more problematic and the digital part, although working fairly well, was reaching its end of life and no replacement parts were available. The cost of rebuilding solely the pipe organ part was well into six figures which was neither within our reach not morally justifiable given the ever decreasing congregation. With the support of the DAC and the DOA, the organ was 'retired' and the console replaced with a Viscount digital organ.
The new organ replaces almost exactly the old console and the speakers are mounted high in the old organ chamber which is being converted into a new vestry, The display pipes will remain so there are no visual changes in the church at all.
Technology changes and the church moves on but organ music continues to be a fundamental part of our worship.