After many years of faithful service our organ is now in need of some attention. Many of you will have noticed the tendency it now has to sometimes play notes by itself (known technically as ‘cyphering’) and also that you can hear air escaping from inside the instrument – which is also not supposed to happen.

What is causing this? The simplest answer is age. Organs are complicated instruments internally comprising of many moving parts, air reservoirs and electrical wiring. Over time these systems wear and eventually cease to be reliable.

We have known for some time that the organ required attention and as organ restoration is a specialist task, discussion first had to take place to decide what the best course of action was for St Margaret’s. In reality there were three options to consider:

1/ Replace the existing pipe organ with a brand new traditional instrument. This was discounted purely because of the cost involved. New organs are still built in the U.K. but there is considerable expense involved and the fund raising required deemed to be more than we could manage.

2/ Replace the existing organ with a modern digital instrument. This option was considered but ultimately discounted as the life expectancy of these instruments is not usually more than about ten years and the technology can quickly become obsolete – how many of us use mobile phones or PC’s  that are ten years old these days?

3/ Restore the existing instrument and make some tonal improvements and other modernisations as part of the overall project. This is the option that has been agreed by the PCC and so quotes have been sought from three organ builders for the work required. We have also requested their opinion as to the alterations and modernisation that could be considered.

We sought four quotes from reputable organ builders accredited by the Institute of British Organ Builder (Clevedons, Trevor Tipple, Peter Spencer and Henry Groves).  We have selected the mid-range quote as this delivers the best restoration works for us taking out some of the poor modifications that were done and repositioning the pipes to project more into the body of the church.   The total required is £83,675 plus VAT.

We have already raised £33k towards the Organ Fund through a variety of methods including a sponsored hymn sing, cheese & wine evenings and individual’s donations (significantly boosted by a gift aid tax rebate).   We have established that we do need to pay VAT which will add £16,735 to the scheme taking the total remaining that we need to raise to £67,410.  

Once the work starts it will take about a year to complete.   During this time part of the quote provides loan of an electronic organ to keep us singing.

Funnily enough the current quote equates, in today’s money, to the original amount that St Margaret’s Church had to raise for the original organ back in 1900.  We therefore know that with a lot of support and generosity it can be done!

Look out for future fund raising events and if you want to donate please contact us and we’ll put you in touch with the correct people.