A TAUNTON church with an organ in need of a £75,000 repair and restoration turned to the community for help raising funds in May 2010, and their plea was answered.
Holy Trinity Church’s rare original Victorian pipe organ, built by renowned organ builder William Hill, had been played by international artists and at public concerts but needed extensive work to return it to its former glory after 50 years without any repairs.
Over £100,000 was raised for the Organ Appeal through donations and grants, and fourteen years later the organ’s music still “greatly enriches worship” in 2024. The year-long restoration project was taken on by T J Fearn and Sons from Honiton, who “took the entire organ apart and restored and repaired every single moving part and pipe”.
The plea in the County Gazette on May 22, 2010. (Image: NQ)
This included having the golden show pipes re-gilded and the case professionally repainted off-white.
Jean Dalzell, a member of the 2010 organ restoration committee, said: “This is a very fine example of Victorian organ building with its original technical tracker action still working. Few organs are in this state, most having been converted to electrical operation.”
In Easter 2012 the organ sounded for the first time in a year, with renowned international recitalist and Organ Appeal patron Nicolas Kynaston performing the opening concert.
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