Rebuild & Changes

1999 Rebuild & changes

By 1990 St Mark's organ was definitely ‘ The worse for wear’. The pedal chest had been damaged by water leaks and pedal notes would cipher, the Bellows leaked quite badly and these leaks were quite noisy, many stops on the Swell were extremely stiff and the combination pedals didn’t work at all.The inside of the instrument was very dirty, the pedal board was significantly worn and there were many action rattles. 

A restoration was clearly needed and an Organ Fund was started in 1991 in memory of Peter Bourton, organist for 43 years (1948 – 1991). In 1994 the fund stood at about £6000 well below any realistic refurbishment costs.

 In 1995 a series of evening ‘Organ fund Concerts’ were started by a very keen Chorister and musician Gill Clark Director of the leading local ladies choir The Woddlands Singers. Gill was Choir Director at St Mark's from 2005 to 2010. There were about eight concerts per year with various amateur groups, local choirs, the Bilton Brass Band, local soloists etc and by 1998 about £15000 had been raised. 

It was then decided to consider drawing up a specification and getting quotations for a ‘Restoration’ project. The Diocesan Organ Advisor (David Walters) was approached and a specification for quotation agreed.The request for a quotation was sent out to four organ builders for a quotation. Three of them submitted quotes and one withdrew. After the quotations came in further discussions were held and Nicholsons of Malvern were chosen. because they could meet the deadline for completion - Advent Sunday 1999.  Nicholsons were the firm that did the previous restoration and  3 rank clamp Great extension work in 1963, they knew the instrument well. 

Nicholsons agreed to do the work in a time slot between September and December 1999 provided that they were booked with a deposit before 1st Jan 1999, this was done and the work was completed on time as planned with the instrument playable on 4 or 5 ranks by Advent Sunday about a month before the end of the last century.

The contract specified, a virtually new main bellows, recovered keyboards and rebuilt pedal board, total dismantling and cleaning, major refurbishment of the Pedal Chest and keys, thorough action refurbishment, restoration of the combination pedals and retuning to concert pitch.The retuning was not quite achieved and at 20 degrees C the pitch is 15% of a semitone sharp (A =447Hz @ 22 deg C). Strings have little difficulty in slightly retuning although brass & reed instruments still find it difficult. Pitch resetting has only slightly affected the overall tone however the Great Dulciana is decidedly softer.

The world famous organist Daniel Moult (then Organist at Coventry Cathedral) gave the opening recital in May 2000.

In early 1990 the original 1955 Taylor Organ Blower motor burnt out. This was probably due to many starts and latterly, quite large bellows air leaks probably putting it in an overload condition! A brand new Discus blower was installed during 1990.The new blower worked faultlessly until 2 days after the grand opening recital of the restored instrument when the centrifugal switch on the Start Winding failed!, this was repaired with the help of the Electrical Department at Rugby College using  Araldite & Molybdenum grease. [21st November 2023} It was emphasised that this was a TEMPORARY repair and a new switch must be purchased and fitted ASAP. The switch was purchased but the temporary repair keeps working perfectly 23 years later !! 

Since the 1999 restoration a major problem became the failure of the Pedal Coupler linkage mechanism where there was continual failure of fabric linkage straps. These regularly broke on the upper hole where the tracker wire was looped through. From 2002 to June 2010 TEN of these had broken and this aspect of the action was becoming a serious problem, in fact two of them broke in the week before a big confirmation service. It was decided to go for a complete redesign and rebuild of this section and Richard Young was commisioned to do the work in July 2010 with completion before Candlemass 2011.

In January 2011 the Pedal Coupler action was completely restored, rebuilt and renewed by Richard Young organ builders (A Registered and Accredited Member of IBO) at his Organ Works near to Brinklow. The action was taken away on 7th of January and returned, reassembled and regulated with many new parts, it has worked with a very high reliability since.