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I think the Colston Hall was the last UK Cornet de Violes - amazing how the pendulum of fashion has swung back. James Lancelot gives a demo of the remarkable one at Durham on the new Priory DVD.

Bravo indeed. I got to both John Scott's and Thomas Trotter's concerts and think the organ sounds (and looks) miles better than before. The acoustic is not perfect but it's much improved, the reeds sound far better and you can really hear the pedal 32' now. The choruses are clear, but I have never been convinced that they really are that much clearer than a "traditional" British chorus and they are anything but when the reeds are added. I've never heard the Colston Hall instrument, completed a couple of years after the RFH using normal H&H scales and voicing techniques, but would be very interested to hear a "compare and contrast" of the choruses from a musician who knows both organs. Apparently the Colston Hall acoustics are superior.

It's not unusual for inter-war organs to have an extra octave of treble pipes on selected stops for use with the Octave Coupler and Unison Off giving a full compass 8' stop from the 16'. St Margaret's in Durham has a variation, in that the 16' Contra Oboe does have an extra octave of treble pipes but instead of a Unison Off, there's an "Octaves Alone" which gives the same effect, and a piston for "Oboe 8" which draws the Contra Oboe and Octaves Alone. You don't often run out of notes when playing an octave up, but when you do, you do!

Porritt used them - he previously worked for F&A and also used their sloping stop jambs: http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N00873

I guess "preferred" does not mean "automatic". I don't know the reasons for the choice of action at Boxmoor but it would be a shame if the doings at Berkhamstead, just up the road, influenced the decision. Incidentally, it is good to see the old Jesus College instrument find a very appreciative new home at Truro School. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-13544316

Looking back, it is remarkable how many things we now take for granted that were pioneered by Noel Mander. Three that come to mind are..... - the sensitive but pragmatic approach to restoring old material, making sure that its re-use did not let down the final result - that modern, well-engineered tracker action is now the preferred choice for new organs of moderate size - the realisation that mechanical parts have a finite life and if worn out must be replaced. The mechanical reliability of the St Paul's Cathedral organ in the most trying climatic conditions is a great testament to his clear thinking in this area. His influence has changed a huge amount, for the better, and his legacy will be with us for many years to come.

If you can find a copy, "Just a Box of Whistles", the memoirs of Brian Hirst, a Conacher pipe maker, is a good read.

Is there any news on the fate of the previous instrument?

My copy of this set arrived last week and I have just started to explore. All credit to those who did the original recordings and the re-mastering - it really is a magnificent effort. I wonder if anyone has any memories of the instruments that have gone for ever: Gloucester, Worcester (pre-72), Llandaff and St Giles? The last must be one of the shortest-lived Willis instruments and was presumably completed under very difficult circumstances in 1940. I'm intrigued by some wistful hankering for the Worcester instrument and surprised by the 1967 additions listed on the specification, which are about as far from the Classical Revival as one could imagine.

Carlo Curley is giving a recital there on 16 July - an excuse to go along and find out?

Absolutely, and you can't get much further south-west. Fine Great chorus and a splendid Cornopean.

The ex-RSCM H&H is here: http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=R01719

26 stops at £400K = just over £15K / stop: http://www.edingtonfestival.org/organ.cfm

Try Priory PRCD 818, Organ Music For Passiontide - a well judged performance and recording at All Saints', Margaret Street, London.

Quote: "We have a small H & H (16 . 8884 . 8848) of 1931 vintage. It is in good nick overall, regularly tuned, needs a clean and probably a reed re-voice, but is unlikely to get either of these unless we get permission to print our own money. Beyond that, it is wholly unremarkable, you might even say 'bog standard' = there's certainly no shortage of these around this area" Without wishing to paraphrase Monty Python, you don't know how lucky you are! Small Harrisons may be commonplace in the North East but elsewhere they are not. What are commonplace are instruments that do not come close, tonally or in build quality. The point about the old St Oswald's organ was "there goes another one", rebuilt and then finally lost before anyone noticed. St Sepulchre's has a Grade 2 BIOS certificate (it appears unchanged since the H&H work) and if that helps preserve it, all the better. It was built after the old instrument had become completely unserviceable and funds were limited in the Great Depression. "Organs of the City of London" records that the planned west end organ never happened. Size should not come into the 'Historic' equation - St George's Hall historic and Adlington Hall not? But of course I have to agree about Durham Cathedral - perhaps (said warily - there are lots of opinions out there!) the finest romantic Europe in Europe and historic, therefore, by definition, even though evolutionary rather than original?

I would certainly class the Nevilles Cross instrument as 'Historic' - perhaps unfashionable to some but unmolested, built to the highest standards and no doubt (like all AH organs) voiced to the building. As an undergraduate at Durham I was allowed to practice on the old organ at St Oswalds. It sounded far bigger than it was, a feature of many of AH's small instruments. It was later given a cut-price rebuild as a 3 manual and finally destroyed by fire (perhaps mercifully) not long afterwards. I suspect that in not too many years, the finest quality instruments of the period 1900 - 1940 will become as treasured as those of the Victorian era are now. It's sad that one of Harrisons' most celebrated small organs, at St Sepulchre's in London (used in the Songs of Praise organ special a few years ago), is apparently now out of use with no organ appeal on the church website. NPOR notes that an electronic is in use. I hope they go for a straight restoration although with the presence of the Harris case I guess there may be pressure for another eighteenth century copy to be bult.

Nathan Laube played his entire recital from memory at All Souls Langham Place last month. It was very impressive. He included his own transcription of the Fledermaus overture, the Bach C minor Passacaglia and finished with Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm. He used the 4 manual H&H console in full view at the front of the church - no visible nerves at all! There were perhaps 60 people there and one of the best performances I've heard for a while.

Here's the reference..... http://www.harrison-organs.co.uk/world.html Trust history will not repeat itself! It's very good to see some significant instruments heading overseas, perhaps now helped by the weaker pound?

Huskisson Stubington contributed an article titled "St Michael's College Tenbury and its Organ" to The Rotunda of March 1931. The earlier Harrison (Rochdale) instrument is mentioned and is also mentioned in Elvin's Harrison Story. HS mentions that the Willis originally had a horizontal reed as Ousley was 'captivated by the Spanish custom of placing reeds as front pipes en chamade' but this feature was altered later in his life, and that the last major work including a new action was carried out by Henry Willis III in 1916.

Crediton PC gained a 32 bottom octave in the (fairly) recent restoration. Before the restoration, the smoothest Harrison I've ever heard, by some way!

I found this recently: http://www.theberkhamstedorgan.org.uk/plannedwork.php which sounds a bit alarming. I haven't heard of any modern Mander, Harrison or Walker mechanical actions wearing out prematurely. Leighton Buzzard PC sounds excellent with a silent action, as does St Martin in the Fields.

Not long before it was dismantled, Richard Marlow made a spectacular recording of the old Harrison on the 'Organ Music from Cambridge' series. It included among other things Whitlock's Fanfare and a marvellously atmospheric performance of Franck's B Minor Chorale. It was on Grosvenor GRS1007 - well worth buying if you see a copy.

Going back to the original topic, the magnificent H&H in Newcastle City Hall was still just about playable when I heard last. Does anyone have up-to-date information? Another very successful restoration is the Caird Hall, Dundee, with a splended CD of Vaughan Williams to prove it from Priory.

I remember reading an interview (possibly in Choir and Organ?) in the last two or three years with the retiring and long serving Organist from Royal Holloway but annoyingly now can't find it. He was responsible for the H&H instrument and described it as being, in his opinion, second only to Coventry Cathedral. He also said it was the last significant instrument voiced by Kenneth James (the H&H head voicer) before he died. Does anyone know details of the firm 'Kenneth James and Son'? I have seen occasional references to it, such as the vilified direct electric action they installed at All Saints, Margaret Street, but this seems to be completely at odds with his reputation as a voicer.

"What do you do when faced with an historic instrument that is difficult to play because it has a seriously non-standard console?" Check out the letters page of the current "Organists' Review", where the antiquarians were fought off and a vintage F&A was allowed to keep its later RCO pedalboard and balanced swell pedal. Hurrah!