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I always enjoy my organ consulting adventures in Ireland.  This time it was a two-day stay in Belfast (March 26 & 27), surveying and then reporting on the large organ in the Whitla Hall at Queen’s University.  The 1905 magnum opus of William Andrews of Bradford (who?  I hear you ask), it was electrified by John Compton in 1949-50 and thoroughly modernised by Hill, Norman & Beard in 1969.  It now needs a complete refurbishment, following which it deserves to regain its place as one of Belfast’s finest instruments.

On March 9th we attended a concert in Birmingham Town Hall, given by one of our favourite choirs – Ex Cathedra – whose founder/director, Jeffrey  Skidmore, remains at the helm some 50 years after establishing the choir.  This concert comprised much of repertoire which he has discovered and edited, recordings of which helped make the choir’s name: 17th and 18th century music from Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil, plus a mass setting by the Italian Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726), who worked in Córdoba (Peru).  A scintillating afternoon.

The first weekend in March saw Anne and me back in Aldeburgh, at the same hotel where we had spent our honeymoon during the 1988 October Half Term holiday.  Lovely though it was to be back there – and the weather was beautiful – there was work to be done, namely surveying and then reporting on the fine organ (Hunter / Bishop) in the parish church of St Peter & St Paul. We caught up with several friends whilst in the area and had a Thoroughly Good Time.

On Saturday 22nd February a cheery audience listened to my afternoon recital on the grand J.J. Binns at Rochdale Town Hall. Not only Binns’s loudest organ, it’s arguably his finest, though having been for a time a Trustee of the Nottingham Albert Hall’s even larger Binns, I ought to whisper that.

I made a DAC visit to Louth on 4th February.  This and Boston ‘stump’ are the two great glories among Lincolnshire churches.  The organs are fine, too: an H&H at Boston and a Forster & Andrews / HNB at Louth, which needs just a little restorative work. A very enjoyable day out.

Sunday 2nd February saw me attending a most enjoyable recital by Declan Poole on the 11-rank 1935 Compton cinema organ in Fentham Hall – at the Hampton-in-Arden end of Hampton Lane in Solihull, the road on which I lived as a teenager.  Adroit and musical playing on a well-maintained instrument.

On January 22nd I made my monthly visit to the Nicholson organ works to inspect progress with the Gloucester Cathedral organ.  All is going well with many pipes made and voiced.  Unit chests under construction and this photograph shows the inside mechanism of one of them.

On January 11th I played a demonstration recital on the little Lewis organ at Cranham, near Gloucester, beautifully restored by Daly Organs. The church was full – most unusual for an organ recital, but they may have been there more for the bubbly and nibbles after the recital than for the playing.  The tiny village is famous for being the birthplace of Holst’s mother: hence his tune for ‘In the bleak midwinter’ being named ‘Cranham’.

Today I made a trio of organ visits, all north-east of Lincoln, for the Lincoln DAC – Nettleham, Burgh on Bain and Louth.  This is Cousans country, and the first two organs are by that firm, separated by almost exactly a century.  The 1971 Nettleham case is by Lawrence Bond and the organ spec (quite ‘vertical’) was by Dr William L Sumner, the renowned author on organs who was based at the University of Nottingham quite nearby.  Something of a champion of Willis and Cousans, there are several examples of his Willis & Cousans schemes in the Lincs/Notts/Sheffield area.

I joined the BOA (founded in 1924) in 1965 – aged 13.  It has long held warm memories for me, as it does for Dr Roy Massey, who joined it a decade or so earlier and has twice been President.  A delightful 100th anniversary lunch was held at St Chad’s Cathedral, where Dr Massey gave an informed and amusing speech, before cutting a wonderfully decorated cake, as this photograph shows.