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Yearly Archives: 2014
Construction begins!
The refurbished bottom notes of the 16′ Pedal Subbass fitted onto their rebuilt windchest
Checking the 8′ Pedal Principal for fit before refurbishing and refitting after Christmas
Lifting the pipes for the Swell divisions on to the gallery
The completed bottom Ocatve of the Pedal 16′ Subbass and the shell of the Swellbox in place
The genie lift ready to start lifting the swell box sections (on top of the benches behind it)
Fixing the pedal framework
Fitting pedal pipes
The shell of the swell box awaiting its roof, front doors and final painting before the pipes are installed
The hoist arrived from HSS Tool Hire at 8.15am yesterday (18th December) and Emily and I applied the last coats of paint to the rear sections of the Swellbox in readiness for its rebuilding. The team from Thompsons arrived at 11am with the new swell division (apart from its new Bassoon pipes) and other parts that had been built in the workshop.
By 1pm the pedal bass and principal windchests were fixed in place on the back wall and the bottom pipes of the Pedal 16′ Subbass were fitted. Later in the day the Swellbox side, front and rear sections were lifted into place and built on to its frame, the Swell windchest was hoisted into place inside it, and the Swell pipes were lifted onto the gallery.
Once the swellbox roof is fitted the whole swellbox will receive its final coats of paint, and be ready for its pipes to be installed and the refurbished swell doors to be fitted on the front.
The organ is heard for the first time!
The Swell wind chest and soundboard built up in the workshop ready to be played for the first time
I visited the workshop on 17th December to look at and hear the Swell division before it is dismantled and packed for installation in church. After a bit of tuning it sounds really promising – even though the various sounds have not yet been blended together properly and the mixture ‘screams’ a bit because it has not yet been adjusted to operate on 3.2″ of wind pressure instead of its original 2.5″. This section and all of its pipes will be fitted into the swellbox when that is remade.
More work onsite
The organ builders are back to refurbish the large wooden pedal subbass pipes ‘on site’ (some of which are 9’ long!), cleaning them with compressed air, cleaning, polishing and re-greasing the tuning stoppers that fit in the top of the pipes, all ready for repainting.
Refurbished Pedal 16′ Subbass pipes refurbished and painted
The biggest pipe so far all done and ready to be fitted!
A flurry of activity!
At All Souls – the rear wall is sealed by me before being painted over by volunteers from the parish.
In the workshop – the Swell division’s windchest and soundboard are rebuilt and the pipes are refurbished and fitted with new tuning slides (metal sleeves which are moved up and down the top of a pipe to tune it). The windchests for the pedal bass pipes are being remade completely (they could not be refurbished – they were originally so poorly made that they leaked wind very badly).
The pallets are fitted to the inside of the Swell windchest
Looking into a rebuilt pedal windchest showing the small bellows motors which control the wind supply to each big pipe
They’re coming…..
Organ builders due on site this week – now it begins!
Behind the scenes
Sunday afternoon spent sealing the concrete wall behind the organ to prevent dust getting everywhere. Horrible job but someone has to do it! ∞
New pipes delivered
12 October
I have just collected the new pipes from Leeds and delivered them to Mike’s workshop.
The new pipes stored at home still wrapped and waiting to go to the workshop (the dark coloured pipe on the right is one ‘rescued’ from Leak and used as the model for the new pipes)
The inside of the foot of a new reed pipe showing the brass parts that vibrate when wind passes through them and the tuning pin used to shorten/lengthen the shallot for tuning purposes
The old organ is taken down
24 September
The builders arrive at All Souls to take down the organ and take some of the parts and the console from Wyke to the workshop for refurbishing and rebuilding. We discover that the wall behind the organ has never been properly sealed and mortar dust and grit from the wall had caused a lot of the damage to the organ.
SWELL PIPES REMOVED AND SWELLBOX BEING DISMANTLED FOR EXTENDING AND REBUILDING
SWELL WINDCHESTS REMOVED
MOST OF THE PIPES AND CASEWORK REMOVED
IT’S GONE (BUT LOOK AT THAT REAR WALL)!
PIES AND PARTS STACKED IN CHURCH AWAITING REFURBISHMENT
Bassoon pipes off to be restored
14 September
Today Emily and I took the sample Bassoon pipes rescued from the demolished organ at St Mary’s, Leek to Booth & Co in Leeds, who will make a new set of 13 matching pipes for a new bottom octave, whilst the rest are being restored by Mike Thompson. These will be the only new pipes in the organ. Although the All Souls organ has a bass reed stop, there were no bass pipes!
Magnets and more pipes
11 August
Work starts on refurbishing magnets that can be re-used and on refurbishing the soundboards from the Nelson organ. We have also been given permission to use the pipes from St Wilfreds – for free! They will become the basis for our third manual division (the Choir division)
All Souls Organ 