orford

In 2019 we rebuilt the Peter Collins organ previously situated in the Turner Sims Hall at the University of Southampton.
It was completely restored, updated and installed at Orford Parish Church, Suffolk in time for Easter 2019.

We have restored all of the chests and fitted schwimmers to them, fitted a complete new winding system, restored the action, fitted new lightweight cedar trackers, washed, repaired and voiced all of the pipework and generally restored the casework. We have also fitted shutters to the Brustwerk.

The church has their own website providing further information on the project, a link to their donation page, and photos from the installation of the casework. www.orfordorganproject.com

Regulating the Brustwerk soundboard springs to ensure an even key touch.

Oberwerk chest, connecting the rollerboard, pallets, pulldowns and leather lozenges. The chest has been fully stripped down and restored. The pallets have new felt and leather, and the pulldown action has been redesigned to make it work more reliably.

These Brustwerk Vox Humana pipes have been stripped down, washed and cleaned. The tongues and shallots have been polished and refitted. All pipes are then put on our voicing machine.

We are rounding out the dents of the conveyances that go from the Great Quintaton 8ft treble notes to the front pipes.

Great rollerboard in place with new better designed fixing brackets.

Brustwerk pipework in place for tuning and regulation.

Pedal Fagot 16ft general cleaning and washing.

This picture shows the shallot and tongue being cleaned and polished. Before is on the right, after on the left. It’s very important that these are cleaned and polished to make the pipes speak correctly.

Making new bellows. The timber is birch plywood, and the leather is sheepskin.

Cutting down a cedar plank to make new trackers 8mm wide by 0.8mm thick. This replaces the original trackers which were 8.5mm wide by 3mm thick. This means the trackers with be less than a third of the weight of the original ones making the action much lighter.

These are planks of American red oak. These will be used to build the cabinet for the blower and bellows. This timber will match the original casework.

These are new schwimmer regulators. They are fitted underneath the Hauptwerk, Oberwerk and Pedal chests to keep the wind steady. They replace the original Peter Collins regulators.

Genie lift to put the Hauptwerk and pedal chests into place.

Brustwerk shutters under construction and fitted.

Frame to house blower, new bellows and music cupboard.

Pipe fitting and testing.

This is the restored rollerboard and new 0.8mm x 8mm cedar trackers for the Hauptwerk chest.

These are the new birch plywood trunks.

Flattened pipes after being badly stores by a previous organ builder.

The previously flattened pipes have been rounded out and revoiced by our staff. The middle pipe shows where it had to be cut in half to repair properly.