It is now necessary to go ahead with the repair, costing about £4,000 which will involve very specialized traditional skills to replace the original leather, with identical new materials. The complete bellows will have to be removed from the bowels of the organ to the workshops of ‘The Village Workshop’ at Thaxted, where their traditional organ building craftsmen will carry out the leather work. This whole process will take about two weeks and it is hoped that the work will be completed by Easter 2008. For
the St Mary's Church home page - click here Right:
This is just a general shot showing some of the several hundred
pipes in the organ. The ones in the centre are the smallest in
the organ - and make the highest pitched sounds. Below
right: Shows the bellows at the bottom of the photograph - the
leather parts are in white. This whole assembly has to be
removed from underneath the frame and all the mechanisms which link
the keyboards to the pipes. It is about 8 feet long and will
take several men to slowly slide it out of the organ when it is
removed for repair. Below:
This picture shows
the corners of the bellows with the many patches which have been
added over the years. |
