2026 news

In June I showed a photo of the new Gloucester Cathedral organ console, just winched into place. Here is another view, taken at the start of July, just before the organ was completed. Notice the lustrous glow of the 1665 organ case woodwork – every inch of the oak hand polished by the Nicholson team.

And here is another view, the nave just appearing beyond the console, which stands on a wheeled plinth so its position can be adjusted for Quire or Nave use.

In 2014 I had the pleasure of working with David Wells (organ-builders) on the rebuilding of the Willis II / J.W. Walker organ in Manchester University’s Whitworth Hall, Little could I imagine then, that twelve years later, our son, Morgan, would be receiving his PhD under that very organ – which was played very well indeed before and after.

This took place on 14^th July, in front of Morgan’s very proud parents.

The morning following Morgan’s PhD ceremony it was back to work for me, visiting the RNCM, which is helpfully adjacent to the University. I am advising the College on a thorough overhaul of the fine 1972 51-stop Hradetzky organ in the concert hall. Rieger are replacing the entire key and stop action, much of the wind system, the blowers and the electrics. They are refurbishing the console with new controls, rendering access into and around the inside of the organ far safer, restoring the pipes and undertaking detailed regulation. This should be finished before next term begins.

On Saturday 18^th I took a group of Organ Club members to see the fine 3-manual organ in St John the Evangelist parish church, Chipping Barnet.  This is an 1884 Hill, rebuilt by Rothwell in 1924 then by Mander in 1967 (from when the console dates) and again in 1986/7.  By 2024 it was in considerable need of restoration and of some pretty thorough re-organisation as both Rothwell and Mander had made significant areas of the organ impossible to reach for tuning – never a good idea!

The work was carried out impeccably by Henry Groves & Son (Jonathan Wallace) of Nottingham.

After Barnet parish church, the group visited St John’s URC, New Barnet, where they were unexpectedly delighted by a very successful early Peter Collins organ, having mechanical key action and electric stop action, laid out in three shallow tone cabinets as can be seen in this striking case design.

The console is very ‘early 1970s’ and quite similar to that Grant, Degens and Bradbeer made for Peter Hurford’s first house organ.

One of my current projects – the chapel of Blundell’s School – needs a replacement organ.  At the same time, the University of Ulster has left its 1960s buildings for a new campus nearer the centre of Belfast, so its Binns / HNB organ needs rehoming (for the second time).  I inspected it on 22^nd July.

The pipework is magnificent – Binns (c.1920) at his best, augmented by HN&B (1966) at their best, the blend  between old and new skilfully managed. 

The pipework and solid 1966 console of this organ will work splendidly in Blundell’s School Chapel, where its bold tone will be perfect for leading the hearty singing of the school.

No space here to tell you all that should be said about this wonderful play (performed by a starry case at the Playhouse Theatre in Nottingham) – and why it was written.  Please look it up on the Nottingham Playhouse website, having first read <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yzz3l0nx1o >

Saturday 25^th saw the start of the 8-day Gloucester ‘Three Choirs Festival’, which proved from the very start to be one of the finest Three Choirs anyone could remember – playing (even my talk about the new Gloucester organ!) to full houses.  No room here for a concert by concert review, but doubtless there are plenty of those to be read elsewhere.

On Friday 31^st we had a day off from the Festival and drove to Chippenham for a most delightful al fresco tea party with four of our dear friends.  This proved a much needed interlude after such musical richness at Gloucester, including a brilliant recital by Thomas Ospital which – happily – displayed the new Nicholson cathedral organ to great effect.  The audience left – even the previous ‘doubters’ – wreathed in smiles!

June has been another pleasantly varied month. It started with Anne completing the taxing jigsaw puzzle given us as a Christmas present by son Morgan. It’s a colourful and clever collage of Oxford’s ‘dreaming spires’.

On 6^th June I took the train to Liverpool to hear Nathan Laube at the Anglican Cathedral. I’d always travel to hear Nathan, but the added attractions this time were the Healey Willan Introduction, Passacaglia & Fugue and the Fantasie Choral No.1 by Percy Whitlock.  Organ and player excelled in these wonderful pieces, as can be imagined, as they did in the Liszt transcription (Les Préludes – Poème Symphonique) which ended the programme.

10^th June saw me at Croydon Minster, to survey and report on the magnificent 4-manual Hill organ, which is in need of some t.l.c.  As the three fine Oldrid Scott cases of this organ are not often seen in print, I thought this photograph would be of interest.

With the Gloucester Cathedral organ nearing completion, I made two site inspections in June – the console had been hauled up on to the Screen just before my first visit. I took plenty of photos inside the organ for my new book The Organs of Gloucester Cathedral (74pp, available from Gloucester Cathedral Shop from July 21^st).

This photo shows the top notes of the Swell Hautbois and Trompette – note their French construction.

On Monday 15^th June we went to hear my old friend Thomas Trotter play his regular lunchtime recital in Birmingham Town Hall.  A lovely programme of light, summery music, played on the organ which bowled me over as a youngster, attending George Thalben-Ball’s Wednesday lunchtime recitals here whenever Solihull School term dates allowed.  I still love it…dare I say much more than the rather clinical Klais in Symphony Hall?

For some weeks I had been planning a 19/20 June tour by 36 members of The Organ Club, based in Worcester, hearing and playing the organs in Worcester Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey, Pershore Abbey, Malvern Priory and two John Nicholson church organs (Newland and Twyning). A tour of the Nicholson workshops saw us divided into three groups and given a fascinating insight into all the firm has in hand at present – around six organs!

The large organs we visited are all well-known visually, so the only other photographs I show here are of the marvellous detail as the top of one of the grand towers of the south transept case (Gilbert Scott) at Worcester Cathedral, of the Elgar window in the Worcester nave, of the fine organ case at Twyning, of the extraordinary decorative scheme at Newland, and of the beautiful meadow on the NW side of Pershore Abbey.

The latest articles written by Paul for the Organists’ Review are now available here.

May has brought a number of beautiful and interesting sights, some of which I am featuring.

On May 5^th I made a DAC (Lincoln) visit to St Laurence, Corringham, where is to be found this beautiful 1880/81 case, ostensibly by G.F. Bodley, but with F.H. Sutton influence.  Its contemporary near twins can be found at Plumtree (Notts) and Edmonton (Suffolk).  It clothes a sturdy little 1886 organ by Wordsworth & Maskell – a firm often used by Sutton.

The next day (May 6^th) saw Anne and I in Birmingham for a CBSO concert. We found time to revisit my old church – J.L. Pearson’s glorious S. Alban-the-Martyr, Conybere Street.  May is ‘Mary’s Month’ – always richly celebrated at S. Alban’s.  Here we are next to the Lady Chapel, whose wrought-iron screen (behind us) came from the sadly demolished Pearson church of St Patrick, close by.  Its rood and two of its stained-glass windows also found their way to S. Alban’s, enriching that which is already the finest Victorian church in the city.

During an organ inspection to St John the Baptist, Cold Overton (near Oakham) on May 8^th, the recently re-discovered 12^th century wall-paintings proved more interesting than the ‘anon’ 1-manual organ.  Here is just one image of many. Captivating when one sees them in situ.

The rose bush in our front garden always puts on a bold display. This is how it looked, mid-May, in full bloom. Such a delight to inhale its sweet scent as one approaches the front door.

On 26^th May I made almost the last of my monthly inspection visits to Gloucester Cathedral, to check recent progress with the new organ.  In the Swell is a very rare 4ft flute – a Flûte à Biberon, no less.  Look for the pipes which look like babies’ feeding bottles and you’ve found it, for a ‘biberon’ is French for just that.

The choir of St Peter’s church, Nottingham, in which my wife Anne sings, make regular cathedral visits. I went along as a camp-follower (how relaxing not to be playing or conducting!) when they sang at Ripon on the final weekend of May, which was a half-term break for the cathedral choir. A wedding had just finished when they started rehearsing on the Saturday – in the image the floral arrangements are far more beautiful than Gilbert Scott’s decidedly clunky organ case in the background.

The second photo, taken during the Sunday afternoon rehearsal, shows, above the Decani side of the choir, one of the two additional cases in the Quire. The large, slotted pipes peering over the top of the gilded front pipes are those of the monumental Harrison & Harrison Double Ophicleide – loud enough in nave; devastating at such close quarters!

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.