Today I had great fun playing the large and splendid Compton in the Astoria Centre, Barnsley. Kevin Grunill has, over the years, made a first class job of its installation and enlargement. It’s a much travelled instrument, made for the Astoria, Purley in 1934 (the same year as the Compton which found partial use in Solihull School chapel, to my youthful joy), it’s been rehoused in East Kilbride, Carluke, Spalding and Sheffield before finding its final (?) and finest home at the Astoria Centre.
It now boasts 18 ranks (5 down to 16ft) — large for a cinema/theatre organ — and is exceptionally well balanced when heard from the auditorium.
