This is the story of how a Catholic parish in Coventry replaced a failing and badly designed 70 year old organ and gave new life to a 100 year-old pipe organ rescued from a demolition project.

It has given the church a pipe organ fitting for the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church in the 21st Century and capable of giving good service for at least another century.

The first phase has now been completed and we look forward to installing the remainder of the Choir division in the not too distant future.

When fully completed,  it could justly be rated as the best pipe organ in the city after the great Harrison & Harrison organ in Coventry Cathedral…and have relatively low ongoing maintenance costs!

To see the latest pictures and read about our progress go to News. More pictures will be found in the Gallery.

 The project is a fascinating story of how we have been able to re-use and re-cycle on a grand scale! For more details of where everything came from and how we designed the organ, go to Background.

The organ has been built by M C Thompson Organ Builders Ltd of Burton-upon-Trent.  It has a pedal division and three manual divisions, a drawstop console, and 1,537 pipes (detailed specification here).

It is located on the rear gallery of the Church, using the repositioned and restored casework and many of the parts and pipes of its predecessor.

Church of the Precious Blood and All Souls, Coventry

Author

Keith Ainsworth is the main author of this site. He is Organist at the Church of the Precious Blood and All Souls, Earlsdon, Coventry.

Keith has been involved in liturgy and music at a local, diocesan and national level for over 40 years, and has been working on this project since 2010.

He is an organ adviser to the Archdiocese of Birmingham, a member of the Archdiocese Music & Liturgy Committee, and a trustee of the Society of St Gregory, the national liturgical association.