©Tom Cogan
The St Gregory's Church Organ
Great News
Due to the generosity of so many people work has been carried out on the organ.The work entailed re-making the bellows and cleaning the Great organ and fitting new tuning slides. We are so grateful to David and Gary for all their hard work.
St Gregory’s Organ Fund
The newly cleaned, restored and bellowed Organ is brilliant.
It sounds absolutely fabulous and the “before and after” difference is huge, so thank you so, so much all of you whose generosity has made it possible. Deo gracias.
The next stage !
It seemed to me to be a very good and sensible idea to start building up a reserve fund for the future as Organs are expensive toys.
During the cleaning and restoration Bishop’s found the Clarinet stop which has lain idle inside the Organ since it was removed and replaced at the last rebuild. It makes a wonderful warm sound. To have it reinstated is part two of the next fund-raising initiative.
Watch this space !! It begins with three Happy Hour Concerts (details will follow shortly ).
Saturday 5th May, Saturday 2nd June and Saturday 7th July, all starting at 6.00pm and ending with wine and soft drinks at 7.00pm.
Tom
The pipes laid out ready to be cleaned
The larger ones needed more space!
The carcass of the organ
©Tom Cogan
Organ Restoration Fund
We rounded off the Happy Hour Concert Season with a marvelous evening with Phyllis Felton splendidly entertaining us with her tales of Sudbury Workhouse, with musical assistance from Elizabeth Cobb on Flute and Rob Spivey on French Horn.
I have been overwhelmed by everybody’s generosity. Donations have come in all shapes and sizes. It has brought many new people into church which has made the occasions very special indeed. We had four very happy and different evenings.
Hugest thanks to the performers who kindly and generously gave their services free, without whom none of this would have been possible.
Elizabeth Cobb, Penelope Marsden, Tom Cogan, Stephen Cleobury, Patricia Eddington, Charlotte King, Phyllis Felton and Rob Spivey.
Hugest thanks too for behind the scenes and at the wine dispensary.
Diana Clifford, Sue Attride, Margaret Tracey and Maggie Cogan.
We know have the money to have new bellows and we are well on the way to the next stage of the Organ Restoration Fund.
Thank you all so, so much
Tom
©Tom Cogan
St. Gregory’s Church, Sudbury
Organ Spec Bishop & Son 1879
GREAT
Open Diapason 8
Stopped Diapason 8
Dulciana 8
Principal 4
Harmonic Flute 4
Fifteenth 2
Twelfth 2 2/3
Mixture II
SWELL
Open Diapason 8
Reed Flute 8
Keraulophon 8
Principal 4
Open Flute 2
Larigot 1 1/3
Cornopean 8
Tremulant
PEDAL
Sub Bass 16
Principal 8
Bass Flute 8
Fifteenth
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Swell to Great
Swell Octave to Great
Swell Sub Octave to Great
Swell Octave
Swell Sub Octave
©Tom Cogan
Bishop and Son Organ Builders built and installed our lovely organ back in 1879. Today they can boast over 200 years of tradition and experience in the art of organ building, restoring and maintaining organs of all sizes and varieties.
The company aims to maintain the highest quality in both raw materials and craftsmanship using rules that were set down by James Chapman Bishop the founder and from the earliest days of manufacturing where only the highest quality materials would ever be used in the workshops. Each generation of craftsmen apprenticed or employed with Bishop has been responsible for the refinement of the company’s skills and individual approach to the work as carried out today.
The firm is currently administrated by Principal Dr Maurice Merrell, who has over 60 years of experience with Bishop and Son, from their head office at Queen’s Park in London, with works located both there and at Ipswich in Suffolk. The enthusiastic team of skilled craftsmen are trained in all aspects of the trade and are employed in projects all over the country and abroad. Working on organs both old and new, with a work range from general tuning and maintenance to restoration, re-builds, new instruments and everything in between.
©Tom Cogan