Nelson arriving in Widecombe

A new organ for the church

We’re delighted to be able to finally confirm that we are going to have a new organ in St Pancras. We haven’t been able to do that until now because we have been awaiting formal approval from the Diocese of Exeter, who have to sign off all proposed alterations within their churches.

This has now come through, and over the last 10 days we have been busy taking out the existing organ, doing some seriously overdue remedial works to the floor, and installing the new instrument.

Lance and Christopher Foy, our organ tuners, took the exisiting organ out in just one day, aided by a merry team of parishioners.

Ed Lamb and Mike Pascoe ponder the task ahead. This was a Friday and on Monday we were due to start installing the new organ! Thank goodness for quick drying cement.

It has come to us from Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, where it has been used tp accompany daily services for 5 years. They have decided they want to buy a new instrument, and we were lucky enough to get in first on purchasing it from the owner, Martin Renshaw (via a Facebook group, would you believe?).

We tried to get as much out in one piece as we could.

When we took out the organ we discovered the floorboards were sitting on dirt and therefore rotten. A large section of plaster fell off the walls, and we were told we needed to remove the central heating from the area (last installed c 1930, and somewhat “sturdy”!)

Well done Martin Jones for getting this iron pipework out. He only burnt out half a dozen blades!

If you want to come along and see behind the scenes, this is a unique moment in the church’s history, and you are most welcome to do so. If it lasts as long as the last one did (nearly 150 years and still going strong), it will be 2170 before it needs replacing! Martin will probaby be working in the church for at least another week, so do drop in and take a look whilst you can.

There are 700 pipes to fit, all of which have to be tuned and regulated so they sound right in our acoustic. There are no documents showing how the thousands of parts fit together: somehow Martin just knows what goes where!

We measured the height a thousand times, so with luck it should fit in: there are still some long pipes to be fitted, which Ed Lamb is going to paint gold for us. Fingers crossed….

Note the newly exposed wall. We managed to repaint the rest of the North Transept, and even got to hoovering up some large cobwebs off the lovely windows.

The most significant difference will be that the new organ has two keyboards (known by organists as manuals) as opposed to just one which we had before. This means that you can have one sound played with one hand and a different sound by the other. Most organ music from c 1700 onwards was written with this in mind, and it will now sound much more as it should do. The organ also has a much wider range of sounds, a volume control called a swell pedal which will allow us to play much more expressive music, and a pedal board which is correctly aligned and has all the notes it is supposed to have. And in addition to this it will has been completely refurbished and works properly!

The “old” organ is going to be installed in a barn at Northway Farm, where it will be available to be played by prior arrangement by anyone who would like to give it a try. Martin is passionate about widening access to these fantastic machines (which are the most complicated musical instrument there is): he is therefore installing it in Northway free of charge.

Our organist Michael Brown will be giving two short recitals on Fair Day, September 10th, at 11.30 and 3.00. We are also planning an inaugural organ recital involving several organists, in which we hope to showcase what the organ is capable of. All being well this will take place in late September or October.

A HUGE thank you to all who have helped and continue to do so: Peter and Krissy Blood, Mike Pascoe, Philly Gimlette, Sue and Hugh Rayner, Jane and David Bibby, Richard Palmer, Ed Lamb, Demelza Jennings, Martin Jones, Stephen Hill, John and Debbie Drakup, Simon Tame, Jim Hammersley, Rich and Ness, and Richard Casey. This truly is a Parish project.