ORGAN OF THE MONTH 38: August 2005
Bridlington
Priory [at Nicholson & Co,
Malvern] |
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Not so much an "Organ of the Month", more an Organ-Builder of the Month, this feature arises from the BOA visit to the factory of Nicholson & Co earlier in the year, which was then full of pipe-work and assorted mechanisms from the famous Bridlington Priory organ.
This mighty instrument, most of which (apart from the Positive division added in 1967) dates from the 1889 organ built by the Belgium firm of Anneessens, is having its internal structure and mechanism renewed and rationalised by Nicholson, together with the addition of sixteen new stops (identified in the Specification).
Nicholson's new factory is cleverly set out to allow even so large an instrument as this to be worked on in a layout resembling its eventual location. This can be seen from the framework pictured in the central photograph above, towering to over twenty feet high in the workshop, containing pipes of the new Trombone 16ft of wood.
Members may be familiar with an old recording on the Priory label (PRCD 273) of Paul Derrett playing the Bridlington organ in 1989. We await with eager anticipation the first recording of what promises to be an even better instrument!