Organ matters - Organs matter!

I have done all I can. I have laid out the facts - the incontrovertible facts - before members, who must now decide whether they prefer scholarship or schoolboy scam. Those who wish to cling to the raft of error must drift ever further from terra firma towards who knows what fiction.

I am sorry to have to weary members with this matter, but this place is as good as any to attempt, yet again, to correct this continuing error of identification.

It is perfectly true that two articles purporting to report on the organ in St Stephen's AMBRIDGE appeared in the now defunct Musical Opinion over the hand of the same author. But – must it be said again? – you should not believe all that you read in the papers. The late Cecil Clutton made this same mistake of identification, as did Dennis Batigan-Verne. Laurence Swinyard queried Clutton, but was pooh-poohed and did not care to press the point.

The source of the mistake is, I believe, to be found in the papers of The Reverend Septimus Harding, sometime Precentor of Barchester Cathedral in the neighbouring county. Harding, through his Oxford and Barchester connections, was Patron of the livings at AMBRIDGE and ARMBRIDGE. He took considerable interest in matters of the organ and made a great number of notes on the instruments at AMBRIDGE and ARMBRIDGE. Unfortunately, his handwriting was abysmal. In the style of the times he would write diagonally over what he had first written rather than use a new sheet, thus making inchoate was already incomprehensible. With his writing, AMBRIDGE and ARMBRIDGE are indistinguishable. If David Drinkell wishes to be in the company of Clutton and Battigan-Verne he cannot be challenged.

The clearest and most concise history of the AMBRIDGE organ is to be found in the Annals of Ambridge by John Tregorran (198pp, 12 illus, pub 1962, Caravan Press). He had access to the Lawson-Hope papers, he interviewed Dr Grand at Felpersham and, though he treated what he heard with caution, he interviewed Nelson Gabriel. The book is to be found in the local history section of Borchester Library. Jennifer Aldridge has a signed copy, but will lend it to no one.

The real point is that both the organ at AMBRIDGE and that at ARMBRIDGE are sorry specimens of their kind and do not deserve the time already spent on them. What will be interesting is how the AMBRIDGE organ is treated from this point on. I look forward to reading informed opinion as the matter develops.

I fear that this post repeats yet again the simple geographical mistake whereby AMBRIDGE is confused with ARMBRIDGE near Burton on Trent.

Armbridge Hall was the home of the Bass family. In 1902, after the death of his mother, Michael Arthur Bass, later 1st Lord Burton presented a new organ to St Stephen's Armbridge in memory of his parents. The history of that organ is more as less reported above. The only interesting point to add is that before ordering the work, Michael Bass took the advice of John Courage, who had undertaken a similar act of filial piety at Southwark Cathedral in 1897. A letter from Courage dated 15 June 1901 (Bass papers, Brewers' Hall library collection, Box B213C) strongly urges Bass to have nothing to do with Thomas Christopher Lewis as he "...was thoroughly unreliable".

I think this may be the time to remark on the Borsetshire Diocesan Organ Advisers. There are two; the tall and gaunt Mr Eric Purley-Choate, BSc, a retired chemist with Borcester Agricultural Supplies and the squat, troll-like Dr Jason Beard PhD, Dip Ed, a social media teacher at Camelot College of Further Education in Felpersham (motto "Putting People First"). Mr Purley-Choate was a sometime organist at Amford Methodist Church and sings occasionally in the Felpersham Cathedral Special Choir. He is a noted matchbox collector.

Dr Beard is said to know a lot about music. He has an electronic organ in his house, but there are no reports of his ability to play it. He sometimes reviews new organ CDs for one of the magazines for organists; for this he used various pseudonyms.

Previously, the Diocesan organ adviser was the organist of Felpersham Cathedral, Dr Carlton Grand, who was in office for over thirty years. He conscientiously saw every proposal and approved them all with the inspiring words, "Excellent, m'boy, excellent!" His successor in office, now renamed Music Administrator, is Mr Darren Leape, FTCL, Dip Ed, who said he didn't have time for that sort of thing. Very quickly and to the Archdeacon's immense relief Mr Purley-Choate and Dr Beard appeared out of the fog and were immediately appointed, or perhaps anointed for there was little investigation into their actual abilities or suitability.

Dr Beard is evidently guided by the spirit of the late J S Bach. He judges each organ by its suitability for the performance of the Trio Sonatas. On this basis alone he condemned the untouched 1883 1-manual, 5 stop Lewis in St Agnes', Loxley-over-Proud. Dr Beard is not much bothered by the means, real or digital, used to achieve his ideals. Mr Purley-Choate on the other hand believes in a Golden Age to which we should all return. Thus his desire that the Ambridge organ should return to it 1863 form; thus his proposal that the organ in the Alexandra Palace be installed in Waterloo Station.

Neither of these men properly appreciate that their job is to advise the Chancellor on the applications for a Grant of Faculty for organ work. Both are convinced that their mission is to advise churches on what to do and whom to ask to do it.

No, not so. In fact the organ was originally built in 1863 by the celebrated Angel & Perfect, then at 117 Grays Inn Rd, London. It was given to the church by Sir Ferret Lawson-Hope to celebrate the wedding of his daughter, Gwendoline Vera, to Captain Basil Fairbrother of the 17th Lancers. It was an all mechanical, two-manual instrument of twenty-three stops, Gt:16,8,8,8,4,4,2,IV,8 Sw: 16,8,8,8,8,4,2,8,8,4 Pd: 16,16,8,8. Spotted metal throughout. The organ loft on the north side of the chancel was specially constructed (albeit ruining the Ferret chantry) and the casework was designed by Sir Arnold Watermouse. The instrument was regularly serviced by A&P until 1904 when Anthony Angel, grandson of August Angel, was caught up in the Hope-Jones scandal and obliged to leave the Country. The remains of the business were acquired by Henry Dewhurst, a one time apprentice who was dismissed for "gross behaviour". By then the firm had moved to Shackles Road, Edmonton, but its sad decline had not been noted in Ambridge, probably and remarkably because the original A&P tuner, Vholes of Birmingham, was still servicing the instrument at the age of 91. In any event, the organ was rebuilt by A&P in 1927 as a memorial to those who fell in the Great War. The action was converted to exhaust pneumatic, The Great Viola 8 was replaced by a Clarabella and another Diapason was added on a chest. The Great Mixture was unaccountable replaced by a Twelfth, the pipes of which were the old Viola simply cut down. Worse, the Swell slider soundboard was replaced by a multi-pallet chest of very poor design and worse execution. The purpose was to provide 'more' stops by extension. The original mahogany jambs were plated over and new drawstops provided in seemingly random arrangement. The original heads and engravings were kept where the names coincided, but otherwise new heads provided with endolithic engravings. A new C&R pedalboard was fitted in oak, which clashed badly with the remaining mahogany fittings, but matched well enough the general style of the work.

The rebuilt organ gave trouble from the start The Lawson-Hope family had long since had to sell their land (remembered now only by Ferret Close, the cul de sac just before the entrance to Gray Gables). The cost of the organ repairs now fell on the congregation. A plan to electrify the organ in 1939 was necessarily shelved because of the War. The plan was reconsidered in 1946, but cost had more than doubled. Dan Archer famously retorted at a PCC meeting his sheep made a better sound than the organ and he'd let the church have a flock for £75. Eventually, in 1952, to celebrate the Coronation, the organ was again rebuilt by Monk & Gunther of Bruce Grove, Tottenham, who were is some  doubtful way involved with Nelson Gabriel. Their price at the time was described as 'competitive'. The work was later described as 'interesting' by Sir Ivor Atkins who was visiting Doris Archer for whom he had had a fancy many years before. The main part of the M&G work was the replacement of the Great soundboard by a chest of their own design. In 1963 Dr Melville Cooke recommended that Henry Willis & Sons Ltd be asked to advise. They proposed replacing the earlier chests with new pitman chests, a new console downstairs, and a revised stop-list, which included a Cornet III in the Swell. Their excellent plan failed to secure a majority in the PCC because Joe Grundy got it into his head that the work would be done by ice-cream sellers. The idea gained credence because Jethro Larkin supported the plan because they were supposed ice cream sellers. In the end a reasonable job was done by Kingsgate Davidson, who replaced the chests with secondhand soundboards and reduced the stop-list by suppressing the extensions. They also releathered the large double-riser, the leather of which had lasted from 1863. The recent problems have been a combination of the dry conditions and mice eating the leather of the K-D primary motors of the soundboard actions. The pitch is also abysmally sharp.

The fact is that £30,000 is simply not enough for what is wanted. The Borsetshire Diocesan Organ Advisers are divided in their opinion. One hopes for a Grant aided Restoration back the 1863 A & P; the other for a 3-manual combination organ with a greatly developed Pedal organ ('for Bach', he says).

There are two hopeful possibilities. Brian Aldridge, hoping to rejoin the human race, may well finance a new organ. The other is a growing undercurrent of opinion that the 1662 Prayer Book should be re-instated. Not many people know that Jolene Perks is the local area Secretary for the Prayer Book Society.