BIRMINGHAM ORGANISTS' ASSOCIATION

 

ORGAN OF THE MONTH 51: September 2006

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Angels, Princethorpe College
(Binns, 1900; Hugh Page 1984, 1992)

Click on the thumbnail to obtain a full-size image

Specification

For the last twelve years, an annual organ recital has been given at Princethorpe College, Warwickshire, in memory of Hugh Page (d 1994), restorer of the instrument.  This year your Webmaster was privileged to be present with two other BOA members to hear the recital given by Tim Campaign (Warwick Road URC, Coventry, who has been associated with this organ for over 20 years) and three students from the college including Philip Monk who is about to commence study at Royal Northern College of Music.

Retirement gave Hugh the opportunity to indulge in his hobby of organ restoration, and well over thirty churches in and around Warwickshire benefited from his expertise and enthusiasm, including this substantial instrument by J J Binns of Leeds.  Binns' tubular pneumatic action is applied throughout apart from the manual to pedal coupling and the stop actions, which are mechanical.  In 1984, the organ was largely unplayable, as most of the action and leatherwork had perished and several stop slides were jammed.  Hugh spent six months re-leathering 500 pneumatic motors, attending to the jammed slides & windleaks, and cleaning all the pipes.

The interior of the college chapel can be seen in the leftmost photograph.  The organ chamber (to the right) is spacious and BOA Member Nick Fanthom may be seen inside it inspecting some of the pipes in the centre photo. Most of the organ is blown at 312in wg, but the Pedal reed, acquired from Southwell Minster and added by Hugh Page in 1992, is on 7in wg.


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Last modified: August 31, 2006