It has been quite a momentous week at St Mary & St Giles as the Heritage Lottery supported restoration work on the Willis Pipe organ began. On Sunday morning the organ was played in the Mass for the last time before restoration by John Neal, then after the service was over, three of our young people, including Jacob, played the organ for a little while before carefully locking the console and returning the key. It was quite a poignant moment, which I tweeted about at the time.
The children enjoying @smsg_organ for the last time before restoration begins pic.twitter.com/rCZqFJ2Lfp
— Anna Page (@AnnaCPage) July 20, 2014
On Monday morning FH Browne & Sons Ltd arrived to start the long task of dismantling the organ. The first thing they had to do was take out the white painted front pipes to reveal the organ which most people never get to see. In the south gallery is the Swell organ and most of the Pedal organ, in the north gallery is the Great organ, Choir organ and the remainder of the Pedal organ sections.
Removing the Great front pipes
Removing the Great front pipes
On Monday I was able to visit the church to photograph more progress (all other photography during the week was by John Page) and tweeted about it:
Excited to visit the church this evening to watch organbuilders dismantle @smsg_organ at start of restoration @heritagelottery
— Anna Page (@AnnaCPage) July 21, 2014
On Monday and Tuesday the organ builders concentrated on some of the Pedal and the Swell section. On Wednesday and Thursday morning they worked on the Great and Choir sections. Each pipe was carefully removed from its rack board (holding it upright in the wind hole of the 'soundboard' action below) and placed in their ranks in the gallery. The smallest pipes were carefully wrapped in bundles in newspaper, some pipes were placed side by side in shallow wooden boxes and the bigger pipes were stored upright in groups along the gallery (except for the front pipes which were laid carefully mouth side down lengthways along the gallery. The pipes will be out for a while, and most of the large ones cannot be stored flat as this would damage them. Some of the longer oboe (Hautboy) resonators in the Swell were banana shaped as they were not supported (the organ building term is 'stayed up') very well, these will be repaired and a proper additional support made for them, to prevent the same thing happening again.
16ft & 8ft Pedal Bourdon pipes in front of the Swell box
Removing Hautboy pipes from the Swell
Small Hautboy pipes
Banana shaped Hautboy resonator
Removing Hautboy pipes
Hautboy resonator collapsing
Removing Swell pipework
Swell pipe rack boards in the organ
Swell soundboards with pipes removed
Swell pipes in the gallery
Swell under action, pedal chest
Pedal Bourdon chest
In 1962 before the organ left Edinburgh, some of the Swell metal pipes were stolen when St George's church was no longer being used as a church. These were replaced when the organ was installed in Stony Stratford and the Lieblich Gedackt rank shows that the theft wasn't wholesale - one 'side' of the rank was stolen, the other wasn't and the stopper handles show the different design of the replacement pipes (made by Palmers Pipes). The darker handles are the Willis pipes, the lighter, thicker handles are the replacements.
Swell 8ft Leiblich Gedackt pipes with wooden stoppers
Swell pipes in gallery
Pedal Trombone resonators
Great organ just before pipe removal
Close up of Great pipework
Removing pipes from the Great
labeling pipes
Sorting pipes in their ranks
Removing pipes from the Great
Sorting Great pipes
Some filming of the dismantling work was done for the DVD we are making as part of the Heritage Lottery supported project and photography will continue as well. The gallery is out of bounds (and locked) - all the pew benches are now in the side aisles below the gallery. However the organ builders have very kindly agreed to come on Saturday 13th September for our Heritage Open Day when they will show people the dismantled organ and chat about progress. We will also have an exhibition about the restoration and research work, with refreshments served as well of course!
