2026 news

At Gloucester cathedral, two figures on the organ case had lost their trumpets – goodness knows how long ago.  No more!  By April 8^th Nicholsons had made replacements and fitted them. Shortly after, they were taken off again, for Michelle Pepper to gild them. With the scaffolding now down (I’m writing this on 3^rd May) they can be seen from the cathedral floor, quietly gleaming.

10^th & 11^th April saw the 50^th Anniversary BIOS Conference in Oxford, based at Wadham College (where our son, coincidentally, studied for his Masters). During a recital at The Queen’s College I photographed one of my favourite stained-glass windows, dating from 1625.  This shows the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ – well, it shows his feet and sandals as he is assumed into heaven – surely the artist (Abraham van Linge) had a sense of humour?!  The next photo is of Bruce Buchanan giving one of his elegantly written and presented lectures, in Wadham, this time about the late Robert Pennells, of Pennells & Sharpe and J.W. Walker. To the shock of the UK organ world, P&S (founded 1963) collapsed into administration a week later. The third photo is of the spectacular casework containing the sonorous new Eule in Magdalen College Chapel, where BIOS members joined Organ Club members to play the organ (after it had been adroitly demonstrated by Alex Pott) on the Saturday afternoon.

March 4^th and 6^th are mine and Anne’s birthdays, celebrated this year by enjoying two wonderful Opera North productions in our beautiful local theatre – Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.  A marvellous way to enjoy our close birthdays.

On March 11^th it became possible to take photos close up to the very top of the Gloucester Cathedral organ case (Harris, 1665-6) showing the wonderful case cleaning by Nicholsons and pipe conservation by Michelle Pepper.

Anne and I did some exploring on March 19^th, aiming to find the home of organ-builder John Compton (about whom I am writing a book).  Which we did, in Newton Burgoland (near Ashby de la Zouche in  Leicestershire).  The delightful Congregational Chapel in which the Compton family worshipped is still there, as is (greatly enlarged) the village school.  A most sunny and satisfactory day!

The Organ Club’s 100^th Anniversary Celebrations continued on 21^st March with a brilliant recital by Jan Liebermann on the Hunter / H&H in All Souls’ Church, Langham Place.  This included the world premiere of one of the Club’s 2026 commissions:  the very jolly Variations on ‘Westminster Abbey’ by Denis Bédard (RSCM Publications).

Here are two photos of one of four sections of the 1892 organ cases at Southwell Minster.  When the cases (of solid teak) were removed by HN&B in 1934, four identical sections went to grace organs they built over the next two or three years – Cromer parish church, Hay on Wye parish church, St Saviour’s church, Weston super Mare, and Park Chapel, Llanelli.  When the Hay on Wye case became redundant in 2010, Henry Groves & Son took it into storage until a new home presented itself.  Some fifteen years later this has come to pass, as it fits perfectly the gallery in Ilkeston Catholic church, behind the existing gallery front, which had to remain in place.  Groves are building a new organ behind it and the front pipes will be the original Southwell Minster 1892 gilded Bishop & Son dummies.

I’ve been working at home for much of February, on three books, as it happens.  However, work on the Gloucester Cathedral organ has been proceeding well at Nicholsons and in the cathedral, to both of which I have been making my monthly inspection visits. Here is a selection of photos which I hope are found interesting.

January has been a refreshingly quiet month. Anne’s choir (St Peter’s Nottingham) sang Evensong at Southwell on Saturday 3^rd; I joined them in the congregation.  This photo was taken at the head of Southwell’s beautiful nave, just before the service, held in the nave as the Quire organ had just blown a fuse. Nave organ to the rescue! So glad they allowed me to install two large organs, back in 1992-4.  Lovely to be back and hard to believe nearly a decade has passed since I retired as cathedral organist and Rector Chori at Southwell, after 27 very fulfilling years.

On the 8^th-9^th I surveyed the organ in the fine chapel of Blundell’s School (Tiverton, founded in 1604).  To be honest, the organ itself is not (yet!) worth writing about, but the chapel’s beautiful altar, the front carved by Eric Gill, certainly is. The stone altar, and its surrounding sanctuary setting, were created by pupils in 1937, under the direction of the Art Master, Mr Phillips.  It is called the ‘Gorton’ altar to celebrate the Headmaster of the time, Neville Gorton, who had been determined to create a really fine Sanctuary in the early Victorian chapel and make the Eucharist more central to chapel life.  Unbelievably, a later Headmaster disliked it so much that it was removed in 1947, being reinstalled only in 1993, after having been bought back at auction from a mother and baby home in Coventry! 

Peter Hurford was a pupil at Blundell’s, and the School continues to maintain a particularly high standard of music, instrumental, choral and academic. We need to return the organ to a standard and musical quality of which he would have approved.

Recently I’ve been helping Chetham’s Music School in Manchester look for a compact, high-quality, vertically-arranged, small modern pipe organ, to replace that lost in a 2021 fire in their main hall. To be honest, I thought there was only the slimmest of chances that anything suitable would turn up, when, to our delight, St Swithun’s church, Bathford, advertised their 1971 Hill, Norman & Beard organ for disposal.  This is a bright and articulate little thing with 17 speaking stops (the same size as the burnt Nigel Church organ), contained in a fine case by Alan Rome (he who, at much the same time, transformed the cases at Bath Abbey and Wells Cathedral).  The plan is to build lower casework (matching, of course) beneath the Alan Rome case (repainted in a lighter colour scheme) so that it stands on the floor where the previous Chetham’s organ stood, with an attached console, new electrics and no tonal changes save the addition of a Tierce to the Swell to complete the cornet décomposé.  Details of the Bathford organ are on the NPOR.  Fingers crossed that this comes to pass.

The final two images are close-ups of carved and painted elements on the 1666 Thomas Harris organ case at Gloucester Cathedral, which is being conserved (along with its painted front pipes) by Michelle Pepper, as Nicholsons begin to install the new organ.  I visit them monthly to look at progress and advise the cathedral; it’s good to note that all is on track.