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FreddieMeynell

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About FreddieMeynell

  • Birthday 14/07/1944

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    http://www.easiplan.biz
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    Banbury

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  1. The Trustees have now received an excellent, very detailed and authoritative Report from William McVicker. It is very thorough on the history of the instrument. It also lists a number of alternative courses of action and gives reasons for his final recommendation. In doing so he has given a good summary of the extra Grant Aid we might be able to attract that will be necessary to raise over and above the main donation. From my Business Consultancy days I know the advantages (and also a close-up, experienced view of the disadvantages!) of employing a specialist Consultancy to obtain the Funding. On a trawl through the Internet I see a large number of successful applications for Grant for restoring organs. They (mostly) don't mention the name of the Consultancy - just that they used one. I've written to several of them but not received any reply yet. Many of these work on a No Win No Fee basis. But I wondered if anybody had any experience of working with a Consultant of this sort and could recommend one? I have my own contacts in the Conultancy world but it would be good to find somebody who has a) been successful and can work with the Trustees of a very rural Parish Church. Can anybody give me a steer? Freddie Meynell
  2. I thought you might like to hear of exciting news concerning the potential restoration of an organ that has remained silent now for very many years. This mini Cathedral of a Church was built by my ancestor Emily Charlotte Meynell Ingram in memory of her husband. See here for brief history, photos etc Church of the Holy Angels, Hoar Cross. Services here are still held in the High Anglican tradition. The 3 manual organ was originally built by Samuel Green in 1779 for Bangor Cathedral. It was installed in Hoar Cross by Bishop and Son in 1876 originally as a Chancel Organ and then enlarged by Conacher in 1935 in order to give sufficient 'body' to accompany the main Nave services. I am in fact the last person left alive who played this instrument for regular services. It had a noble swell - as much due to the strings, couplers and part-pneumatic action added by Conacher as the original 1779 Green pipework - but one played in a little box within the organ and were not able to hear the whole organ nor, worse, the congregation (you just hoped they were singing - you could only tell if you stopped a tad early). Because of its location in the Choir you did have very good contact with the Priest. The Meynell Church Trustees (of which I am one) are in fact the 'Owners' of the building, rather than the Diocese, as my ancestor established it as a 'peculiar' because of the worry in those days - late 1800's - of the feared anticipated separation of the Church and State (Disestablishmentarism). Due to a generous anonymous donor's gift we are now in a position to relook at restoration and as a first step have commissioned and received an excellent, wide-ranging and authorative report from William McVicker, the distinguished independent consultant whom many of you will no doubt know. This basically sets out practical and workable alternatives. It examines the pros and cons and viability of restoring the organ to its 1935 or its 1876 or its 1779 state. Dr McVicker has also been very helpful in recommending some of the various bodies who we could apply to for grants, their scope and methods. We are at an early stage and one of our chief concerns will be not just in restoring this fine instrument but also in leaving it in an easily-maintained state. The Conacher work was a bit bodged in places and so squeezed into every crevice that it renders it almost impossible to be accessed in its current state - it's very much a gallon in a pint pot. In addition, Hoar Cross is a small community of some 300 souls - and the regular congregation is less than 100 (though that's not bad for a remote rural location) Anyway, we now have some alternative paths to explore but I thought you'd be pleased to hear about the start of the work on a (mostly) instrument that has been silent too long. Freddie Meynell
  3. I have some good news for you Barry. We have at last got substantial enough sums to restore this fine instrument. I'm a Meynell and descendant of the Founder, Emily Meynell Ingram) and was born and brought up at Hoar Cross, but left there in my early twenties to pursue a different lifestyle. I am the last person alive now who used to play this organ regularly for services until the '70's when the bellows collapsed. I wrote a history of it many years ago but that has now been lost. The Church is one of the greatest achievments of the great Victorian architect, G.F. Bodley. You can see the fine case if you go to http://www.holyangels.co.uk/index.html under the photos (the Church is hardly tiny but whether it served as a model for the much later Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, I wouldn't know, though I see the resemblance you mean). The case was actually by Farmer & Brindley but it is understood that whilst Bodley DID design a case for the Church this was not it but he undoubtedly influenced its design. It did indeed come from Bangor, and contained a decent proportion of Samuel Green pipework. But it was only intended as a Chancel Organ, but being there became, ipso facto, the main isnstrument. It's a 3 manual, tracker action obviously, and has Bishop writeen all over it. I now play a 2 manual Bishop near where I live now, near Banbury, and felt immediately at home as soon I saw it and played it. Some 40 years ago – it must’ve been in the early ‘60’s - as the Founding Secretary of the Eton College Organ Society, I arranged a visit by the Society to come and see round the Mander Works. Noel Mander conducted us on this tour and I was fired up with his description of how to voice and – above all - his passion. The fact that he was as enthusiastic to a bunch of uncouth 15-17 yrs old boys as I imagine he would be to a parcel of Bishops, lives on in my memory. We were transfixed too by the craftmanship we saw – we talked of little else for days (apart from the other things that 15-17 yr old boys talk about). A few years later, I asked him to come up and look at the Hoar Cross Church Organ – not particularly remarkable maybe except for the Greene pipework and the wonderful case. He crawled all round it with a torch and thought he could identify Greene’s work – he knew what it looked like - but couldn’t be certain until some at least was removed. He followed this up with a suggested specification and an approximate Estimate (sadly lost now – a different story). We then at the Hoar Cross end started a fund to raise the money. Our main step forward was when we sold a painting collected by my ancestor, Emily Meynell Ingram. For those days it was a huge some of money and the then Bishop ‘seized’ it (the money) and said we could make do with a piano – the starving of Africa deserved it more. So the organ has lain silent – the bellows collapsed permanently a couple of years later (temperature fluctuation, probably) - since then, and nobody has done anything for obvious reasons. After the death of my brother, I was recently appointed a Trustee of the Meynell Church Trust and we have now established that the Church BELONGS to the Trustees and so – as OWNERS - we now know we're in a stronger position. Watch this space! Freddie Meynell
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