Refurbishment

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During the course of 2018/19, deterioration of some components began to manifest themselves at regular intervals in the form of cyphers (continuous sounding of a note), rogue notes and intrusive humming noises. As these problems began to cause disruption at some services, the decision was made to call in some expertise to diagnose the cause of the problems.

Controls opposite keyboard

Inspections were undertaken by both a respected organ builder and the Diocesan Organ Advisor. They were broadly in agreement as to the scope of urgent works required. Consideration was also given to replacing the organ with a high quality digital electronic organ, a solution adopted by numerous churches. The recommendation of the Diocesan Organ Advisor was that St. John’s pipe organ was of such pedigree and quality that it should be retained and fully refurbished. St. John’s PCC took this advice and went to tender to specialist reputable organ builders in March 2019.

Pipe Organ Services from Melton Mowbray were awarded the contract commenced work in January 2020. Of course, the COVID pandemic intervened, and completion of the work was delayed until Autumn 2020. The final cost was £36,000. This was considered to be really good value in relation to the scope of work carried out

The result of all the painstaking work carried out is that we now have our very special pipe organ back in near perfect condition and ready to be played for the enhancement of worship and the enjoyment of the whole community. The organ will actually sound better than it ever has before, since one of the major improvement tasks completed was to modify the timber framework to allow the Swell Box and Soundboard to be lowered so that the sound is no longer partially blocked by the ceiling structure in the organ loft above the vestry.

In “The National Pipe Organ Register” you’ll find St. John’s 1881 Hill Organ https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N13810

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