Maybe I should explain why we opted for a Copeman Hart organ in Lytham. It was far from our original intention. We had an organ by Peter Conacher which had been moved early in its life. Being designed to speak into the nave only it did a fine job, but then it was turned around to face the chancel where it blasted the heads off the choristers but sounded feeble to the congregation. It was altered and added to several times after that to try and correct that, but location prevailed. My first job was to try to solve this problem and I proposed to turn the organ back around, beef up the choir organ in the chancel and add side shutters to the swell to project a second manual behind the choir.
Our organ builder, David Wells agreed that the idea would work, but said that the old organ had become such a mongrel with all the alterations that it was not worth spending more money on. We therefore started looking for a suitable replacement instrument. At that point the organ adviser came into our lives. We visited several used instruments together, but he was fixated on one scheme only and refused to consider anything else. The scheme was to combine two organs by Willis III into a single organ. One of them both the organist and I knew and didn't like and the other was in pieces in David's workshop. Both the churches wanted ridiculous money so we crossed them off our list. The adviser was so obstructive to any other solution that the time came when we gave up on a pipe organ and opted for digital.
We chose Copeman Hart as he could build is an instrument to our exact design and voice it just the way we wanted it. I was in charge of the church organ and based it on the organ in Pietermaritzburg City Hall, South Africa. This was Brindley & Foster's largest and finest instrument. I had the joy of being in charge of it for 12 years and knew every stop intimately. I added a few things to make it work as a church organ as well as a concert organ. Other than that it was an exact replica. Some people may not like the voicing, but I assure you that it's totally accurate. The original can be heard on You-Tube if you're interested.
Peter Jebson is the organist and is famous in the theatre world. We wanted an organ on which to show his skill. Our solution was to fit variable tremulants which could give the church organ a more theatrical sound when required. Ernest came up with a counter suggestion. For an extra £5000 he would give us a complete theatre organ played from the same console and through the same sound system. Peter and Nigel Ogden took charge of the design and voicing and got exactly what they wanted.
So that's how we got 2 organs in one and why they are digital.