The story of The Burtey Fen Collection

The story of The Burtey Fen Collection really begins in 1987 after we had acquired the organ from St. Marylebone Church.

Initially we were going to store all the pipes and parts for use in other organs, but Harold Cantrill gave me the idea of installing some of the organ at home in my garage - on Spalding Road, Pinchbeck. After a visit from Harold in 1987 I showed him the 4-manual console - which was stored in Adriaan van Egmond's barn on Cowbit Road. He encouraged me to use the console again to construct an organ in my garage. This never actually materialised, as the garage was much too small. However it made me immediately start looking around the district for another home - which would have room to install an organ.

Laburnam House in Northgate (opposite Northgate Mill) was for sale, and adjacent to the house was a barn - which looked like an ideal home for a pipe organ. 'Laburnam House' - which should have been spelt 'Laburnum' - became our new home in 1987. We continued to use the incorrect spelling ....

Although the barn was a good starting place, it needed extending. So during 1988 a double garage and store room was built on the side of the old barn, making the building L-shaped. An upper floor was built to accommodate a small 'concert room' with a separate upstairs store room for organ pipes. The upstairs store room later became the coffee bar. The Marylebone console was then installed in the concert room, and the organ chamber - to hold the organ pipes - was located in the corner of the L-shaped building - 16ft high.

The installation of the Marylebone organ took about 3 years in total with work taking place between 1989 and 1991. A three-phase blower had to be installed - which involved building a small blower shed on the side of the building, and second-hand chests were collected from Barrow-in-Furness. A new Solid State transmission system also had to be made and fitted. This new organ chamber could only accommodate about 1/4 of the original pipework from the Marylebone organ, so a certain amount of 'extension' was necessary (Extension means using some of the same pipes at different pitches.)

In order to allow the organ to be used for light entertainment music as well as for classical music a few additions were made , including a Glockenspiel, a Xylophone, Chimes, and a set of Tibia pipes - complete with tremulant.

By the end of 1991 the organ was complete, and Nigel Ogden was booked to give the opening concert - attended by friends, relations, those who had helped with the project - and neighbours.

Concerts by different organists were then held each month in aid of charity - with the concert room accommodating about 50 people.

The Compton Cinema Organ

In 1993 David Shepherd contacted me with the news that there was a Compton Cinema Organ for sale.

Henley and District Organ Trust had purchased the Compton organ from its original home at The Ritz, Tunbridge Wells and had installed it in the Regal Cinema, Henley, where it was used for monthly concerts until 1986, when the cinema closed down. It remained untouched, and fell into disrepair until 1993, when developers bought the cinema, which was to be demolished to make way for a car park for a nearby supermarket. In order for the organ to be saved it had to be bought, dismantled and removed within a couple of weeks.

I decided to buy the 7-rank Compton - unseen - and together with a small army of helpers we travelled to Henley one Saturday with seven vehicles to dismantle and pack all of the organ parts. Using a generator to supply power for lighting - as there was no electricity now in the cinema - in the semi-darkness we located all of the parts, and brought the console, all of the chests, workings and blower - and its 600 pipes - back to Pinchbeck - just in time, as two days later the cinema was demolished!

Below can be seen parts of the cinema organ being sorted and packed ready for removal to Pinchbeck. When everything was unloaded that evening, the parts filled two large garages, and some had to remain outside covered over with tarpaulin.

There followed two years of hard work to restore the organ to its former glory. All moving parts were removed for renovation, with all the leather, wiring and wind ducting being replaced with new. The pipework was cleaned and repaired, and five additional sets (ranks) of pipes were included in the specification to make a total of twelve ranks.

A new computer controlled-transmission system - Uniflex -had recently come onto the market in America, and I decided to use this for the Compton. After a long wait, all the circuit boards arrived from the USA together with instructions about how to install it. This was the first time the American system had been used in the UK and it was soon discovered that there were slight differences in the way American and UK computers were set up. Peter Morris, our Assistant Organist at Spalding Parish Church, came to the rescue, and eventually we had the system up and running.

The Compton console was then installed in the concert room at Laburnam House. A new organ chamber had to be built to accommodate the Compton pipework, and the existing Concert Organ console was moved to the left-hand side of the room.

Once the organ had been completed, and had a chance to settle in to its new surroundings, it was time for the opening concert. Robert Wolfe opened the Compton in March 1996 and gave two concerts on the same day - one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.

Now more people wanted to see and hear the organ again - including visitors from its home town of Tunbridge Wells. A series of monthly concerts was planned and these became so popular it was soon evident that it was time to move to larger premises!

Not only had the audience outgrown the size of the small concert room at Laburnam House, but there was not adequate provision for car parking, and some of the less-abled visitors found the outside stone staircase a problem.

In 1997 we began to look around the district for a suitable site to use as a new venue. We looked at a pig farm in Weston, a site in Holbeach, a plot of land in Moulton Seas End - and the disused Milroy Country Club in Holbeach - before finding a possible site at West Pinchbeck. (Actually it was an unofficial viewing at The Milroy - as a window was open!) However, Angela Newton from AP Sales contacted us to view a site on Burtey Fen Lane - less than 1/4 mile from Laburnam House. When we first arrived at the site we found disused greenhouses and a gravel area - complete with a skip and a disused car. We were not really sure that the site would be big enough - however, we had not realised that the site extended about one acre beyond the hedge. With that included as part of the sale, the site seemed ideal - but now it was all down to the Planning Department of SHDC.

We decided that whatever happened we were going to sell Laburnam House, and by October 1997 a sale had been agreed - with completion due by April 1998 to give us time to dismantle and remove the organs.

In April 1998 we moved into a temporary rented house - right opposite our new site on Burtey Fen Lane ...

July 1998 work began on the foundations for the new building

Due to the uncertainty as to whether planning permission would be granted or not, our solicitor - George Hastings - gave us some very good advice. He drew up an agreement that bound the seller to the agreed sale price - so that the price could not be raised if planning consent was granted.

After a great deal of negotiations with the planning department, outline plans were submitted.

more to follow ...

Installing the Compton cinema organ

The Concert Organ

The Wurlitzer

The small fairground organ