The Great pipework in place on its wind chest. The empty pipe racks in front are for the refurbished 8′ Trumpet and 4′ Clarion pipes from our old organ, which are on site awaiting fitting

Massive progress this week (thanks to Mike and the team).  We now have almost all the Great flue pipes in place, and all of the Swell pipe racks, together with both sets of bellows and much of the wind trunking.  In addition, the solid state dataplex output cards for the registration systems and action control software (made for us by Sonic Systems of Thetford in Norfolk) have all been fixed in place adjacent to where the console will be fitted, together with all the wiring. Most of the refurbished casework has also been brought back to Church, ready to be fitted, and the second blower unit has arrived.

Work has also been progressing at home, where the Swellbox doors and access panels have been repaired and repainting completed, ready for them all to be delivered to church next week.

At the workshop over the next few days some adjustments and painting are being carried out on the bottom octave of the Great 8′ Open Diapason and their wooden pipe supports are being treated with button polish.  In addition, work has now started on the rebuild of the console donated to us by St George’s, Whyke.

The Swellbox with all its sliders and pipe racks in place ready for the rest of the Swell pipes to be installed

The output boards for the computerised control systems fitted under the Swell windchest

Mike, Simon and Mat fitting out the Great wind chest

The whole of the 8′ Celeste is now in (at the back of the Swellbox)

More work has been done in Church, including finishing off the installation of the Swell 8″ Celeste stop, completing the Great pipework up to and including the Fifteenth and fitting the wind chests and support for the bottom pipes of the Great 8′ Open Diapason.  In addition, some of the refurbished casework has arrived from the workshop and the blower from St Johns, Bloxwich which will work in tandem with the blower from our old organ to provide the wind for the organ.

Most of the Great pipes are now installed

How tiny are these babies? The Great 2′ Fifteenth top octave

This will be the biggest week ‘on site’ at All Souls. The two sets of rising reservoir bellows have been remade and were today fitted into the organ under the Swellbox, and the small chest for the Swell 8′ Celeste stop has been fitted on to the back of the Swellbox.  The Great wind chest and pipe racks were finished last week in the workshop and were also installed today, together with a number of pipes from the 8′ Open Diapason, 8′ Flute and 4′ Octave.

The 8′ Celeste Pipes on their small wind chest inside the Swellbox

The Great Windchest and some of its pipes fitted into place in front of the Pedal pipes

This evening Mike Thompson and I finalised the drawstop layout and final designs for the console.  Over the next few days most of the wind trunking will be installed, together with the wind chests for the Great 8′ Trumpet and 4′ Clarion and the rest of the main pipework.  More news tomorrow…

Some of the Great pipework

Some of the Great wooden flute pies and metal Open Diapason Pipes -the bright metal bands at the top of the metal pipes are tuning sleeves which are moved up to lower the pitch or down to raise it

Firstly, a daughter for Simon and Hannah Tipping – congratulations and best wishes to all the family! Simon is one of our team of organ builders from M C Thompson Organ Builders Limited.

Secondly, more remade/refurbished parts arrived today, and the remaining flue pipes were fitted into the Pedal divisions.  We now have the windchest for the Swell Celeste and the new and the refurbished pipes for the Swell 16′ Bassoon and the 8′ Cornopean.  All the Swell pipework is now finished, on site, and, if not already fitted, ready to be installed.

In addition the refurbished Trumpet and Clarion pipes from the original All Souls organ have arrived, ready to be installed in the new Great division together with the pipes of the Great Twelfth stop, a number of small wind chests that have been built for the Great and Pedal divisions over the last few weeks and the remaining refurbished resonators for the Pedal 16′ Trombone.

Work is continuing in the workshop until next week, when the next round of on-site construction work begins.

The Completed Pedal Fluepipes

Swell Pipe racks and Bassoon Pipes ready to be fitted

We have found out more information about the ‘Nelson’ organ and its builder.

The organ which is to be the “basis” of our instrument was originally built in 1915 by H J Nelson & Co. Henry John Nelson was born in Yorkshire in 1856 and in the 1871 Census was was described as a joiner in Scarborough. By 1880 Nelson was working for Thomas Harrison, whose firm became Harrison & Harrison (now the UK’s biggest organ builders and builders of big instruments such as Coventry Cathedral and the newly refurbished organ in the Royal Festival Hall).

In the early 1880’s Nelson set up his own business, near to the Harrison workshop in Durham. His firm thrived, specialising in good quality smaller instruments that were built all over the North of England and down into the Midlands. His son, Arthur, took over the business (and built the organ at our neighbouring Hearsall Baptist Church in 1961). In 1967, on Arthur’s retirement, the business was taken over by J W Walker & Sons, who are still building large organs – one of their more recent being the organ at St Chads Cathedral in Birmingham.

Over the weekend of 31 January/1 February Bishop William Kenney, whose area of pastoral oversight includes Coventry, carried out a formal ‘visitation’ of All Souls parish.  An episcopal visitation is carried out about every five years and is an opportunity for the Bishop to get to know everything that is happening in the parishes in a diocese.

Bishop gets a close view of a Viola pipe, and hears it ‘speak’.

Keith showing Bishop William some of the swell pipework

Our new organ is now taking shape and many parts of it which will not be visible when the case is rebuilt can now be clearly seen, and the quality of the workmanship appreciated (not just that of Mike Thompson and the team, but also that of the original builders of the Nelson organ over 100 years ago in the middle of World War I).

Accordingly, the organ has received its own ‘visitation’ – Bishop William, Fr Michael and a number of parishioners went up on the gallery and were given a a bit of a ‘tour’ of the instrument and an explanation of where it originated and how it has been put together.

The second windchest for the Pedal 16′ Trombone and its pipes, all now fitted

The Swellbox, with pipe racks and pipes for the Swell 8′ Violin Diapason and 8′ Viol d’Orchestre all fitted

Today the Swellbox painting and lighting were completed,  a further windchest and pipes for the Pedal 16′ Trombone were installed with half of the Swell pipe racks and the refurbished pipes of the 8″ Violin Diapason and 8′ Viol d’Orchestre. The Pedal division is now almost complete.  Work will now continue in the workshop on the Great pipes, windchest and soundboard.