January 2010

 

Press Release

 

Final Chapter in Organ Restoration Story has begun.

 

Tuesday 26th February marked the start of the last Chapter in this story when piece by piece the restored Organ began to return back to St Mary’s Church in Boston Spa. The Organ has been under restoration since August, and is now ready to take pride of place on the new Gallery which will be its new home.

 

Scaffolding has been erected in the Chancel to enable safe lifting of all the bits and pieces – some of which are very heavy and have odd shapes.

 

Once the internal supporting structures are in place, the keyboard and pedal mechanisms will be fitted and the final parts to return will be the pipes. It is hoped that the re-erection will be completed by the end of February, and the glass balustrade can then complete the job (and stop the Organist falling off the Gallery) at the beginning of March.

 

The work has been paid for through the hugely successful Organ Appeal, which raised a well over half the money locally, and the Appeal was topped off by an award of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery.

 

John Townend, the Organist, said that it was a joy to see the historic Forster and Andrews Organ come back looking so good, with everything shiny and burnished and ready for another 100 years of music making. “If it sounds as good as it looks I’ll be delighted” he added.

 

The Church hopes to plan a series of events when the Organ can be heard by as many people as possible, especially in view of the huge local support for the Project.

 

ENDS

 

Release date : now

 

Further information from

 

John Townend 01937 845711  

 

Mobile 07940 14 19 20

 

Permission to use photograph is without restriction.