Organ Building

An organ at home

At the age of eleven I was not content with playing the piano, I really wanted to have an organ of some kind at home. By chance one day whilst visiting Moulton Church, we came across an old harmonium which was no longer wanted. The vicar said I could have it! For those who don't know - a harmonium (or American Organ) has brass reeds inside, and works by pumping two pedals with the feet. Contrary to popular belief - for those of you that are scientifically minded - the reeds actually worked by suction, rather than pressure, so pumping the bellows caused a vacuum to suck air through the reeds. This first harmonium had no stops - just one set of reeds with no variation of tone possible. Next came a better model - bought for £5 in an auction room. Now there were 'stops' which could give a variety of different sounds....

The third one came from St. Paul's Church in Fulney. John Gooding and I loaded it onto a home-made buggy, and trundled it all the way along Queen's Road and Halmergate to Grange Drive. We must have looked rather like rag-and-bone merchants - and it almost tipped off the buggy crossing the junction with Low Road. When we got it back we found that it was completely riddled with woodworm inside and so after all that effort, it had to be burnt!

The fourth and final harmonium was a two-manual and pedal version, complete with an electric blower (although it actually sucked air rather than blew air - similar to a vacuum cleaner). At this point I sold the first harmonium as the sun lounge was becoming somewhat overcrowded!

It was on this instrument that I learnt to play most of the carols from the carol book, in about 1970.

Three things happened about that time to inspire me to find out how pipe organs actually worked. (Ever since I can remember I was always somewhat too inquisitive about how anything worked - often preferring to take a toy to pieces to investigate its workings, than to actually play with it ..)

Firstly ..

Next door to our bungalow in Grange Drive a small 'Casson' type pipe organ was being stored by Ted Crampton. The organ could be played in the garage, and I was, of course, fascinated to find out how it all worked. I spent many hours in that garage playing the organ, and tinkering around - finding out how things worked. Everything was accessible - pipes could be lifted out, and all the workings could be viewed at the back of the organ.

Secondly ..

In the late 1960s the organ in Spalding Parish Church - which I was now using to practise on for my organ lessons - was actually starting to develop lots of faults. It had been installed in 1928, and a lot of the moving parts and were wearing out, and the organ's 'leather' was starting to perish and leak. On the left of the console was a door into the workings of the organ. Colin would regularly have to go inside the organ to sort out sticking notes and other faults - and I would watch eagle-eyed.. Canon Jakeman would often remark 'We have another syphon,' - actually meaning a 'cypher' - when a note stuck on. When the time came for some major repairs in 1969 and 1970 I used to go to the church after school to watch Harry Ringe and the other organ builders from 'Rushworth and Dreaper' taking some of the organ apart and repairing items. They let me 'help' and I often arrived home for tea very late - and often covered in dust and dirt ..

Thirdly ..

Playing the organ one day at a local Flower Festival - at Walpole St. Peter, I think - I came across Geoff Parker. Geoff Parker was an engineer in Fleet Road, Holbeach, and had a great interest in steam trains and - in later years - pipe organs. He had a workshop where he had constructed a pipe organ, and invited my dad and me to have a look at the organ on the way home. Having more or less completed the organ some years earlier he had now moved on to other projects, and the organ lay quite neglected. He said that if I was interested, I could come over to the workshop during the school holidays and try to get the instrument working again. I didn't need asking twice, and would bike over from Spalding to Holbeach whenever time would allow. There is a section about Geoff Parker further on down this page.

These three incidents all inspired me to find out as much as I could about how pipe organs worked, and aged 14 I really wanted to build my own pipe organ, so during 1970 I acquired a set of 61 metal organ pipes, an organ blower, two keyboards and a pedalboard - and spent lots of time using a car battery to work out the electrical circuits necessary. I was actually reasonably good at the physics needed - although Bob Bradley, my physics teacher at Spalding Grammar School, would probably beg to differ on this one ...

By 1971 the pipe organ was almost complete and installed in the sun lounge at Grange Drive.

Repairs to Spalding Parish Church organ

In about 1969 some parts of the organ in our church began to fail. The first sign of a problem was the hissing sound of air leaking when stops on the organ were pulled in or out. This was caused by small holes appearing in the small leather 'bellows' which pulled and pushed the wooden sliders underneath the pipes. Colin and I would go inside the organ and attempt to repair some of the leaks with black tape - which worked for a short time .. Eventually the problem became so bad that certain stops could not be used. Rushworth & Dreaper came and removed the stop action units from the organ, and re-leathered them - and I used to call in from school to watch their work.

Above - three views of the pneumatic stop action motors (small bellows)

Inside the organ was a maze of thin lead tubing - which transmitted air pressure from valves at the keyboard to tiny valves underneath the pipes. These two views show the front and back of the 1928 console.

When faults on the organ occurred, Colin was quite keen that between us we should try to fix things, as calling out the Organ Tuner (Ivor Norridge) was expensive - and he often could not come for a week or two.

On one occasion all of the stops on the console jammed, and could not be pulled in or out. One of the thumb piston valves had stuck, and Colin reckoned that he knew what to do (but he wasn't brave enough to do it on his own)... We went inside the organ and started to unscrew the lid of a wooden box, which had lots of lead piping connected - like a kind of junction box. He said he had seen the organ tuner do this before - but what he didn't know was that the wind had to be switched off before opening the lid. We opened it with the blower still on ... The lid blew off when the last screw was removed, and out shot a mass of springs, brass pins and small leather discs and valves. In horror - to the utterance of Colin's well-used phrase 'Oh Boy', we hurriedly switched off the blower and attempted to put all the parts back together. In the end we just had to put everything back where we thought it should go, and put the lid back on. It still did not work, and when the tuner came, he was very puzzled as to how all the pieces seemed to be in the wrong order. Neither of us admitted to our tampering ...

The original 1928 Rockingham two-stage organ blower installed by Rushworths in 1928 is still going strong to this day. It has a 5 horse power three-phase motor, which was refurbished by Adlington's in the late 1960s. The two-stage blower was also checked by engineers at some point - and for some reason they welded around the joint between the two barrels. This means that any future internal maintenance to the fan blades will be almost impossible. A new star-delta starter unit was fitted about 2010 after the original Discus pneumatic starter failed. This star-delta system enables the blower to start slowly and gradually build up to speed.

A few months later the six large bellows which hold all the wind for the organ also began to leak - and eventually these had to be re-leathered - again by Rushworths. Again I always joined them after school - and this time there were lots of sheepskins - and lots of PVA white glue.

The photo below shows two of the six sets of bellows in Spalding Parish Church organ. The springs produce the correct wind pressure.

Once the bellows had been leathered, some of the small leather discs (known as purses) which moved up and down by air pressure started to burst. This caused one note to become dumb - or sometimes to stick on. To begin with it was possible to patch the odd one or two by gluing a small piece of leather over the split. Colin and I spent almost every Saturday afternoon patching these to keep the organ going for the next day. But with almost 500 of these throughout the organ - and some of them totally inaccessible - it began to be a losing battle, and notes would stop playing - eventually making the organ unplayable.

Below can be seen 8 purses which move up and down by air pressure. Some have been patched with pieces of leather to cover the splits.

Now it was time to consider a full rebuild of the organ, as it was uneconomic to re-leather all of these leather purses. By now electric action was widely used in place of all the pneumatic piping and purses. This now used electrical contacts at the keyboards, thin cables to replace the lead piping, and small electric solenoids to replace the purses.

Thus the scheme to rebuild and 'electrify' the old 1928 organ came into fruition, with the rebuild complete by Spring 1972.

Removing the 1928 Rushworth Organ - in 1970 / 1971

When Rushworths began to remove the organ in 1970 / 1971 ready for its rebuild, I spent as much time in the church as I could. This time the organ builders found some of my help quite useful - for example passing some of the 3000 pipes down and packing them into crates, and they paid me £10 every few days. I didn't particularly want the money - I just wanted to have hands-on experience and asken continual questions about the workings of the organ. They gave me bits and pieces (that would otherwise have been scrapped) to take home, and when they asked if there was anything else I asked if it would be possible to have a keyboard from the console. They gave me this without question - and when I went the next day I found the rest of the console all broken up in pieces and in the skip. I wished I had been brave enough to ask for the whole console - but now it was too late.

Installing the rebuilt Rushworth organ in - 1971 / 1972

When the time came for the organ to be returned to Spalding and rebuilt - once again I was in my element. I learnt about solenoids, solid state action and watched how the builders laced all the cables in neat looms. Later I went on to learn about tuning the organ - and a small amount about voicing the pipes (making them all blend together).

I owe a great deal to Harry Ringe and the organ builders from Rushworths for allowing me to watch - and later help with - the work in Spalding Parish Church.

In place of the pneumatic 'purses' are lever magnets - or solenoids - which operate on 15 volts

The newly re-built organ was reorganised within the choir vestry. The Choir section of the organ was placed behind a green fretwork screen in the north chancel arch (where the original console had been situated. The Great organ was moved out onto a platform facing west - on the north side of the transept.

1972 rebuild - The Choir organ Side view and front view of the Great organ

New Organ Tuners

By 1980 Colin Martin had employed Holmes and Swift, Organ Tuners to take over the tuning and maintenance of the organ instead of Rushworths. In 1982 I had become sufficiently experienced at tuning that I could carry out this work myself - so for the last 38 years I have tuned and maintained the organ.

Problems in 1995

In 1995 it came to light that Rushworth and Dreaper had, in fact, not releathered the internal motors. These pull open the pallets to allow air into the pipes. Over a period of time I removed these section by section and releathered them. The photo below shows the re-leathered motors reinstalled inside the organ chest. (The motors are the white shaped pieces across the centre of the photo.

More work required - following the fire extinguisher incident

After the fire extinguisher incident in 2006 the architect instructed that the entire organ be cleaned. This involved removing all 3000 pipes to begin with in order to access the rest of the organ. The pipes were crated into twenty 8ft x 2ft pipe trays, and we borrowed a trolley (usually used to carry coffins) from the undertakers - Willsons - so that the wheels did not mark the stone floor.

Many of the metal pipes were sent to Booth's of Leeds - partly so that they would be out of the way whilst the cleaning of the church took place, and also so that they could be professionally cleaned - and any repairs carried out. The remainder went to my workshop at Pinchbeck. The largest wooden pipes remained in the North Aisle of the church - covered with polythene.

Then followed a complete clean of every surface, and every moving part of the organ. This took about 3 months and, of course, following cleaning - each section then had to be sealed off to prevent further dust settling whilst the church was being cleaned.

The pipes could not be returned until the church cleaning had been completed and the scaffolding removed. It was then time to put each set of 61 pipes back into the organ - one at a time - and tune each pipe. There are approximately 50 sets of pipes in the organ!

Many people helped with the physical moving and cleaning of the organ pipes, and the cleaning of the rest of the organ - including Robert Molson and George Bird, and I thank you all for your contribution!

Now - once again - the organ was as clean as a new pin ...

Jaunts as a teenager with Geoff Parker and Ted Crampton to fetch disused organs

After I had met Geoff Parker and Ted Crampton, they used to take me on trips to fetch disused pipe organs. The idea of this was to preserve at least part of these instruments to be used again. The most useful parts of redundant organs were the organ pipes, and the blower. Other parts were ususally very heavy, and often not worth salvaging.

Two particular occasions are very memorable.

Yorkshire Chapel.

On one occasion the three of us set off to a disused Methodist Chapel that was due to be demolished - somewhere in Yorkshire. Towing a low-loader car trailer, and taking car jacks and rollers, we left about 7am. On arrival at the chapel, it became obvious that the door was far too small to remove the organ, and so - after checking with the owners, and with the help of some locals - they decided to demolish the entire front wall of the chapel. (No health and safety assessment or architects considered here ..)

Wall demolished, the trailer was backed into the chapel - right up to the organ. With car jacks and rollers the organ was moved - just as it was - onto the trailer. Covered then with polythene and ropes the organ was taken back to Holbeach, where the parts were stored for future use.

Power cut

On another occasion I remember that we were working through the evening dismantling an organ. Having been told that the power supply had been isolated, Geoff Parker cut through the main cable. With a great flash and bang the lights went out - and we later found that he had also taken out the power to half of the nearby village ...

The organ in Geoff Parker's workshop

Geoff Parker was an engineer in Holbeach, and he specialised in grinding crank-shafts for car engines. As mentioned previously, I first met Geoff at a flower festival and he allowed me - and later John Gooding as well - to attempt to sort out the half-finished organ he had installed in his 'front place' as he called it - a mock-tudor building at the front of his workshop on the corner of Fleet Road and Branches Lane.

Geoff allowed John Gooding and me to learn how the organ worked with first-hand experience. He let us work on the organ - taking parts to pieces, and - once we got the organ working again - adding to what was already there. The pipes were on the balcony in a separate room - just visible at the top of the photo. To start with, the console was a maze of wires - which took some weeks to actually sort out!

The usual colour-coding system that was used for multicore telephone cable was completely mixed up because, standing at the back of the console, he had wired from the left hand side, not realising that this was actually the top note of the keyboard, and not the bottom note - so everything was in reverse order. One of our first tasks was to remove all of the cabling and start all over again - lots of solder and patience needed here.

As Geoff had completely made the organ himself - apart from the pipes from a redundant organ - he also made the three keyboards out of planks of wood. This was long before John and I became involved. Having 61 notes - and each note being half an inch wide he had cut the 61 notes out of a plank of wood. On assembling the keyboards he discovered his mistake. For those who are pianists or organists the top note C is actually twice as wide as the others, because there is no C sharp. This meant that the top note on Geoff's keyboards was very narrow - and didn't actually play.

The first-hand experience which I gained at Geoff Parker's gave me much of the knowledge of organ building that I have used over the years. When Geoff died, we removed the organ and used many of the parts in local church organs. The tiny organ that I constructed for the church at Weston Hills has one of these keyboards - with its narrow top note ...

In recent years Geoff Parker's workshop and 'front place' have been demolished - and the site now has a house and Nursery.

Holbeach Catholic Church Organ

In the late 1960s Geoff learned to play the organ, and when, in 1969, the new Roman Catholic Church was built in Holbeach he wanted to install a pipe organ - and later became their organist under Father Mulligan. Having removed a redundant organ from the church at West Winch he used that as the basis for the organ, and constructed new oak casework. The organ had to be slightly modified - as it only just fitted in the church below the ceiling by 1".

Not content with a one-manual organ he decided to add a second manual, with pipes sited on the right-hand side. This project was never completed, and after Geoff had died, I later removed the additions and re-instated the organ back to its original one-manual status. Engraved on one of the metal pipes it states '1936 - the day King George V died'. ... and on the front of the organ is a small plaque dedicated to John Gooding, who had helped so much with this project, and died in 1977 at the age of 17.

The organ in John Gooding's bedroom - and help from the dustmen ..

John Gooding also lived in Grange Drive, and had become quite interested and involved when I started to build the pipe organ in our sun lounge at home.

He decided that he also wanted to build an organ - in his upstairs bedroom, and so together we set to work. He set up a workbench along one side of his bedroom, where we drilled all the wooden holes. This made a dreadful mess with dust and wood shavings everywhere. Gradually over a period of months the small one-manual organ took shape. The blower was to be placed above his bedroom, in the loft. We fetched the blower, which was in a wooden box, and his father had told us not to attempt to get the box upstairs until he came home that night. Of course - we didn't want to wait - we just wanted to get the blower upstairs and try it out.

Halfway up the stairs the blower became jammed on the side rail, and it was too heavy for us to lift one way or the other. Aunty Flo, who lived downstairs, rushed outside and commandeered two dustmen who happened to be collecting rubbish. They left their bin lorry and came to help get the blower up the stairs. Whilst they were there they also offered to get it through the trap door and up into the loft - I doubt they had ever seen anything quite like that before ...

Welton le Marsh Church Organ

In 1973 John Gooding and I were asked to repair a small organ in Welton le Marsh. It was really a case of cleaning the insides, and sorting out notes that were sticking due to damp. In more recent years the organ has now been scrapped and replaced with an organ that was originally at Walsingham.

You can see the rest of the details of our visit in 1973 in the cutting below:

Zion Methodist Church - and the burglars

John Gooding and I were asked to repair the organ in the Zion Methodist Church in Boston. This work involved replacing the electrical switching system in the console - new key contacts, new cabling and diode switching. It took three days to complete, and - as we had no transport at that age - we slept in sleeping bags in the aisles of the church. The first night was fine, and we went for breakfast at Mr Ellerby's house in Carlton Road.

The second night we were both asleep - fully dressed in sleeping bags - when we were both awoken by whispering voices - like ghosts. Then we saw some shadows of figures. It was completely dark inside the church, apart from a tiny amount of light coming from the street lamp outside. Neither of us really knew what to do, so in the end I crawled out of my sleeping bag and tiptoed to the end of the aisle where the light switches were located. Switching on the lights we were faced with burglars who were taking items off the Communion Table. They dropped everything and escaped through the window. I don't know who was the most shocked when the lights went on - us or them. I don't know if the burglars were ever caught ...

Moulton Parish Church Organ

In 1977 Colin Martin and I went to investigate a 'problem' that had occurred on Easter Sunday. On investigation we found that the entire rear of the organ, and all 500 pipes, had dropped from the main frame by about 12". The main frame had suffered severe woodwarm and had given way due to the weight above.

Geoff Parker, John Gooding and I drew up some plans for a new organ, using the best of the old pipework, and included the latest Solid State technology that had been used in the Spalding rebuild by Rushworths. We submitted an estimate of £2,500.

The plans met with opposition from the Archdeacon - Michael Adie - as he did not think that 'schoolboys' would have sufficient knowledge and ability. He favoured a scheme submitted by a professional organ building firm - with an estimate in excess of £8,000. Geoff Parker went over to Morton to explain more to him in person and I think - from what he said afterwards - there was something of a confrontation. In hindsight I can see why the Archdeacon was reluctant to approve this work - as we were not in any way professional organ builders. However, with support from Dr. Latham of Fleet - and an assurance from Geoff Parker that we would oversee the work - we were given the go-ahead.

John and I made plans, together with Geoff Parker, to construct the new organ. The old pipes were to be cleaned and repaired, and some new ones added; a new Solid State switching system was to be made, and the new chests, with sapele (similar to mahogany) upper boards would hold the new direct pallet magnets (solenoids). Geoff planned the main frame and the woodwork for the console.

On January 22nd 1977 I received the news that tragically John Gooding had been killed at Moulton, on the A151 near the junction to Moulton Seas End. He had been cycling from a friend's house in Moulton when he was hit by a lorry.

Apart from losing a great friend and colleague - and choir member - Geoff and I now had to construct the organ without his help. John had been planning to make the solid state boards, using his knowledge of circuitry. I now had to learn how to do that ...

Positioning and fitting over 500 direct pallet magnets, together with wiring each one up took quite a long time ...

After many months or planning - and drilling thousands of small holes in perspex sheets to hold the diodes, resistors and transistors - the solid state system was complete.

Once completed, the organ was officially opened and dedicated in 1978

The tornado caused extensive damage to the organ when water came through the exposed roof.

The combination of these three things caused the 1970s solenoids to begin to corrode, and by 2010 I suggested that perhaps it was time to look for a replacement second-hand organ, rather than to spend more money on the existing instrument. After extensive research, the PCC decided instead to replace the pipe organ with a Makin Electronic - and so I removed the organ in 2016. At least it had given 38 years of service!

St Thomas' Road Methodist Church - 1973

In 1973 John Gooding and I were asked to see if we could 'repair' the organ in St. Thomas' Road Methodist Church. The 3-manual organ was in quite a poor state, but we were able to sort out the majority of the problems and enable the organ to continue for another 20 years or so. The main task was replacing quite a lot of the original pneumatic lead tubing which become squashed over the years, and re-leathering the small motors (like tiny bellows) which operated the pedal bass pipes.

St Thomas' Road Methodist Church - 1995

By 1995 the organ needed more attention, and it became obvious that a rebuild of the entire organ would be a better option this time. This time the old organ was completely removed, and two ranks (sets) of the old pipework kept for the new organ. A new console was purchased, second-hand electro-pneumatic chests installed with a new solid state transmission system. A second-hand Open Diapason rank of pipes, made by Harrison and Harrison, and a Trumpet rank were added.

St Thomas' Road Methodist Church - 2019

When the church was sold in 2019 the organ was removed, and I have used some of the parts in local church organs.

The organ in Weston Hills Church

Weston Hills did not have a pipe organ in the 1980s - it only had a harmonium. Using some of the spare parts that I had acquired over the years - a keyboard and one set of pipes from Geoff Parker - and later a second set of pipes from the Marylebone organ - I made a tiny pipe organ in my living room - and gave it as a gift to the church. This came about partly because Miss Ostler had been kind enough to allow me use of her barn for many years to store redundant pipe organs and parts - completely free of charge.

After the organ had been installed our choir was invited to sing at Harvest and Christmas services - a tradition that continued for many years.

Brothertoft Church - lifting the organ over the fence, around the cows

In 1981 I was asked to build a small new organ for Brotherfoft Church. I used two ranks fo pipes for a redundant organ, and constructed new chests and console with a solid state transmission system. Once the organ had been constructed in my workshop we set about transporting it to the church. Brothertoft church is in a field, with no access by road. Cars could, with great care, drive through the field - which had cows and bulls roaming around, but it was going to prove almost impossible to transport the new organ across the field in this way.

We managed to persuade the owners of the nearby house to allow us to drive around their property to get as close to the church as possible, but unfortunately there was a fence in the way - with no gateway through. So in the end Mark Sanderson and I had to lift the entire organ up and over the fence with the help of some other local people. Every time I visit Brothertoft church, and see that fence, I remember the problems we had with the cows and the fence. Our choir came to sing at the dedication service - which is when we almost left Malcolm Holloway behind!

St. Paul's Church, Fulney - baked bean tins for tuning collars

Tuning collars are small metal tubes made of steel which fit over the top part of an organ pipe. They are fitted so that they hold tightly to the pipe, but can be tapped up or down - to tune the pipe. The problem with tuning collars is that they rust over a period of time, and then either stick firmly to the pipe, or lose their tension and drop down.

In the early 1970s I was asked to look at the organ in St Paul's Church in Fulney as some of the pipes sounded 'strange'. On investigation I found that about six of the tuning collars had rusted so badly that they had dropped down the pipes. In those early days - not realising that sets of tuning collars could be bought from organ pipe makers - we used old baked bean tins to make replacement tuning collars. It made our fingers very sore cutting and bending the metal - but the bean tins worked. Later on, I bought completely new sets of tuning collars for all the pipes throughout the organ.

Photos showing tuning collars - tapping upwards makes the pipe longer, and sound slightly lower (or flatter)

Holbeach - fire during Evensong

One Sunday evening in 1996 I had a phone call from Peter Graper, the organist at Holbeach Parish Church. He explained that during Evensong lots of faults had occured on the organ, and that there was a smell of burning. I decided that it was best to go straight over to Holbeach and have a look what had happened.

It was soon obvious that the original 1950s cotton-covered multicore cables had 'shorted out' causing the thin cables to overheat and smoulder somewhere between the console and the organ chamber. The cables (about 500 different wires) were inside a flexible metal conduit which had corroded over the years. The fire was actually located in the centre part of the conduit - right in front of the chancel step. We had to cut off the conduit at both ends - which immediately rendered the organ unplayable. At least we prevented what could have been a disaster for the organ - and the church.

The organ Advisor, and Organ Consultant - Ian Bell - were asked to give a report, and it was decided that all the old 1950s cotton-covered cables must be replaced throughout the organ. At the same time other improvements were to be made, particularly to the console.

Over the coming months Chris Scotney and Steven Gardner helped with installing new cables throught the organ, and connecting these to a new Solid State transmission system supplied by Solid State Organ Systems.

An organ for May Hill Church

Mark Sanderson was asked to build a small pipe organ for a church at May Hill - along the lines of the organ we had built for Brothertoft Church. We constructed the organ in my garage and I travelled down with the entire organ packed in my car and trailer. It took just one day for us to install the organ, and a newspaper report can be seen below.

Harold Cantrill

Harold was another 'character' in the organ building world. I first met Harold when I was about 15 - when he gave me some old sets of organ pipes. He lived at Castle Donington, and over the years had built and maintained church organs in that area. He also had a great interest in Cinema Organs - and had acquired a great deal of organ parts and pipes which he stored in various garages and workshops in Castle Donington. He had organs in his garage, organs in his workshop, and organs at the Piano showrooms. I used to visit Harold regularly - and always came away with a car full of organ parts ..

When Harold became less mobile, he asked if I would like to buy some of the organ parts in his workshop. He was very generous, and didn't want too much money - he just wanted them to go to 'a good home'. To start with I bought individual items which I could use to enhance the organs I already had at Burtey Fen - a French Horn set of 61 pipes, a Krummett set of pipes and a Marimba. Eventually, as Harold became almost housebound, he asked me to remove everything. So with the help of George Bird and his sons Steven and Paul we had several journeys to remove and collect over 2000 pipes, and what amounted to about four different organs. My workshop was now full of organ parts again ...

Those who have helped over the years ...

To begin with John Gooding, Geoff Parker and Ted Crampton used to help with projects, and as the years have gone by various other people from our choir - and parents - have become interested in pipe organs, and have helped with some of the projects I have undertaken.

Remembering how Geoff Parker allowed me to learn by having first-hand experience, I have also tried to give this same opportunity to others.

I am most grateful to all those who have helped in any way over the years, and in particular:

• Geoff Parker

• Ted Crampton

• Harold Cantrill

• John Gooding

• Mark Sanderson

• Richard Hills

• Robert Hargrave

• Chris Scotney

• Steven Gardner

• Mark Willerton

• George Bird

• all those who helped with the Marylebone Organ project

A list of all the organs on which I have carried out restoration work:

Over the years the accumulated items from these instruments have been stored in various barns and sheds around Spalding. My own workshop at Pinchbeck at various times has held many thousands of organ pipes. These have now been used in other organs, sold, or scrapped - depending on their condition.

I no longer keep a stock of organ pipes or organ parts, as I have now retired from any major organ rebuilding work - although I continue to tune and maintain local church organs.

For those of you who may be interested I have just started a new section (30) in my memoirs that will tell the story of the Burtey Fen Collection - which actually all started after we salvaged the organ from Marylebone Parish Church in 1987.