Well - I guess it's time to fess-up. I am the buyer of this organ and I went down to Devon last week to collect it and it is now back at my home in Charlwood (next to Gatwick). My commiserations to Nigel "Diapason" who so wanted this organ but I too have been looking for a long time for a pipe organ that would fit in my home. The organ was moved to Devon about thirty years ago and sadly the owner died shortly afterwards so the organ has not been played for about thirty years. An organist friend who lives in Somerset went to look at the organ for me when it came up for sale on Ebay and reported that many of the notes were not sounding but that was not surprising as it hadn't been used for so long. Nothing too serious - just a matter of cleaning a few key contacts. Here is the lsiting on Ebay so you can see what it looked like squeezed into its porch location - not ideal.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180758394842?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
Having taken the organ apart it is now clear that the porch had been damp for many years as some of the metal parts resting on the floor (rectifier, junction box) were badly corroded and the wooden base plate on which some of the framework rested was rotten (fortunatley I won't be needing this). Fortunately everything else was resting on wooden bearers and so the damp has not penetrated beyond these. Some of the connectors which were in the porch look in very poor condition. The tuner's books which go up to 1980 show a history of problems with notes not sounding and the final comment from the tuner says he is concerned about corrosion on the contact rail and suggests some remedial work. It looks like the church declined and disposed of the organ instead. Previous comments in the tuners book suggests that a window near the organ was letting in damp.
You can view the spec of this organ here - http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D03276. All the pipes are enclosed except the bottom octave of the Rohr Flute rank which form the large display pipes. Although they look like open 8ft diapasons they are in fact stopped. The bottom octave of the 8ft diapason is in the swell box and is haskelled.
I have done some research on the internet on Compton Miniatura organs and found about 25 listed on the NPOR. Coincidentally there is one just round the corner from here in Langley Green, Crawley which I went to have a look at a couple of weeks ago - a very nice example and the organist says it gives no problems at all. Judging from this example and a number of pictures I have seen on the internet all these organs have the 12 no. 8ft long (physical length) pipes arranged 5 along each side, and one on each corner of the front with the console in between. Clearly the organ I have purchased had a different layout - it seems 11 pipes were arranged along the front with one returning down one side. Maybe this was dictated by constraints where the organ was originally installed in St Swithun's. I intend getting along to St Swithun's in the next couple of weeks to see what I can find out about its history.
This instrument clearly needs a lot of TLC and it seems that I have unintentionally landed myself with a restoration job. I intend to set up a website where I can document my progress and also to keep a video diary. Hopefully the website will also become a resource on Compton Miniatura organs generally as my research yields more results. However I am full of good intentions but often lack the time to implement all of them so don't hold your breadth for the website, especially as my wife has a long list of jobs I should be doing around the house and she is not best pleased that I have taken on this project. In the meantime I will give updates on progress on these pages.
Any advice gratefully received - David P - I am sure you will be a wealth of information. (Hope to see you at Crawley & Horsham District Organists Associations AGM at the end of the month)
Patrick Cox
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180758394842?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
Having taken the organ apart it is now clear that the porch had been damp for many years as some of the metal parts resting on the floor (rectifier, junction box) were badly corroded and the wooden base plate on which some of the framework rested was rotten (fortunatley I won't be needing this). Fortunately everything else was resting on wooden bearers and so the damp has not penetrated beyond these. Some of the connectors which were in the porch look in very poor condition. The tuner's books which go up to 1980 show a history of problems with notes not sounding and the final comment from the tuner says he is concerned about corrosion on the contact rail and suggests some remedial work. It looks like the church declined and disposed of the organ instead. Previous comments in the tuners book suggests that a window near the organ was letting in damp.
You can view the spec of this organ here - http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D03276. All the pipes are enclosed except the bottom octave of the Rohr Flute rank which form the large display pipes. Although they look like open 8ft diapasons they are in fact stopped. The bottom octave of the 8ft diapason is in the swell box and is haskelled.
I have done some research on the internet on Compton Miniatura organs and found about 25 listed on the NPOR. Coincidentally there is one just round the corner from here in Langley Green, Crawley which I went to have a look at a couple of weeks ago - a very nice example and the organist says it gives no problems at all. Judging from this example and a number of pictures I have seen on the internet all these organs have the 12 no. 8ft long (physical length) pipes arranged 5 along each side, and one on each corner of the front with the console in between. Clearly the organ I have purchased had a different layout - it seems 11 pipes were arranged along the front with one returning down one side. Maybe this was dictated by constraints where the organ was originally installed in St Swithun's. I intend getting along to St Swithun's in the next couple of weeks to see what I can find out about its history.
This instrument clearly needs a lot of TLC and it seems that I have unintentionally landed myself with a restoration job. I intend to set up a website where I can document my progress and also to keep a video diary. Hopefully the website will also become a resource on Compton Miniatura organs generally as my research yields more results. However I am full of good intentions but often lack the time to implement all of them so don't hold your breadth for the website, especially as my wife has a long list of jobs I should be doing around the house and she is not best pleased that I have taken on this project. In the meantime I will give updates on progress on these pages.
Any advice gratefully received - David P - I am sure you will be a wealth of information. (Hope to see you at Crawley & Horsham District Organists Associations AGM at the end of the month)
Patrick Cox