Conacher & CompanyEstablished 1854 Pipe Organ Builders |  |
Conacher & CompanyEstablished 1854 Pipe Organ Builders | |
Restoring a Pipe Organ
CASE HISTORY
Parish Church Organ by Henry Bevington, 1856.
by John Sinclair Willis
Managing DirectorMaking the right decision
St. Luke's Church is in the heart of Berkshire's countryside. The village has a population of around 200, most of whom work in nearby towns and take little or no interest in the old Parish Church.
If you stop to ask directions, mention the Boar's Head Inn. People drive past the church and don't know it is there.
The Vicar has retired; there is an interregnum; there is a small congregation.
They do not have an organist, but there is a lady in the village who plays the piano and occasionally bashes out a few hymns.
The organ hardly works. It is old and falling to pieces.
The pedals do not work at all, and the Swell organ is prone to cyphering so it is best not to use it.
That leaves the small Great organ, but for the small congregation (and for the lady who plays) it is adequate.
Before he left, the Vicar called in an "expert" who looked at the organ and told them that it was not worth doing anything to.
It was beyond repair and it would be best to buy an electronic organ.
The church was damp, under-used and it would not be worth spending the money.
A year so later I was asked to come and look at the organ and I arranged to survey the organ when I was next in the area.
SURVEYING THE INSTRUMENT
My colleague and I were met by four members of the Parochial Church Council and we immediately saw that the instrument was both old and interesting.
What we did not know, however, was who built the organ and when.
There were obvious signs that the instrument had not been built for this church. Some of the Open Diapason pipes that had originally stood on the case were conveyed to a block inside the instrument, and the front pipe rail had been altered.
The plain brown decoration of the case was identical to the pine panelling around the church which indicated that it had been installed when the church was built in 1883.
As the organ had obviously been installed elsewhere before being moved to St. Luke's there was an indication that it pre-dated 1883.
The design and construction of the façade pipes could not be used to date the organ, and the internal pipes gave no clues as to their age.
The actions, however, were all wooden. Wooden rollerboards; wooden squares; wooden backfalls, all built in a style that was used from the late 18th century to the 1860's.
The keyboards were traditional in design, and the key cheeks were scrolled to a design used by "Father" Henry Willis from 1845 to the present day.
This organ was not by Willis, though. It showed no signs of inventiveness or refinement, and the tonal specification, although pleasing was not outstanding.
The pedal board was flat and the keys radiated.
Samuel Sebastian Wesley was visiting The Great Exhibition with my great great grandfather when he noticed that Schultz's pedalboards were straight and concave. Willis' were radiating and flat. Wesley suggested that the advantages of both pedalboards could be combined in a concave and radiating pedalboard.
This style of pedalboard was adopted by all the major organ builders of the time, so it was reasonable to assume that this pedalboard was built before 1852.
There was a rustic, vernacular feel to the organ, but there were still no clues as to the builder or the date.
The church had suffered from damp, and the animal glues in the most exposed parts of the instrument had broken down.
The pedal levers had fallen apart; the iron tracker wires had rusted so badly that there was no adjustment; and the pipework had been "tuned" for many years using what would politely be called "unsophisticated methods".
The organ was also very dirty. Stone and plaster dust had found its way into the instrument and, being abrasive, this was a major threat to the centres and fulcra.
The P.C.C. wanted the organ to work, and they were easily convinced that it should also have a certain amount of conservation work carried out.
THE CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION WORK
Costs were to be kept to a reasonable minimum, and no alterations to the original were to take place.
All new materials and processes were to match the original as closely as possible, with the exception of the iron tracker wires which were to be replaced with phosphor bronze.
The pipework was to be rounded out and repaired, the tonal qualities were to be restored, and action bushings were to be renewed.
The budget for the work was £14,000, because a similar sum had been quoted for an electronic organ.
When we dismantled the instrument we discovered the following inscription
"Henry Bevington - installed by self 1859" Henry Bevington and Sons started trading in 1797 and built many organs for provincial churches until they ceased trading in the 1860's.
This organ showed that many of the design features used by previous generations of the family had not changed with the times, and it also suggested that the scroll design of the key cheeks was copied by Father Willis!
Personal records of the family that had given the church and the organ showed that it was installed in 1894, but there are no records showing where the organ was first installed.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The conservation work was straightforward; the organ has been saved; the church has a good and useful musical instrument that has attracted three regular organists, and the congregation has grown through the publicity about the organ and the musical events now being held in the church.
At the moment it is obvious what conservation work has been carried out, but in time the materials will fade and blend in with the old.
We have documented the work that we carried out and stored the documents with samples of the original materials that have been replaced by new.
A century from now we can expect the organ to be restored, and if I have made mistakes there will be no problem in reversing any of the work I have done.
Meanwhile St. Luke's has an organ to be proud of; a small piece of our heritage that will give pleasure for generations to come.
(The name and location of the church have been changed to protect client confidentiality)
© 1996- Conacher & Co.