St. Peter And Paul, Eye / St Mark's Woodhouse, Leeds

[andyorgan]

Submitting to a previous thread on Abbot and Smith in Leeds, I remembered another organ I had played in my youth. I also used to play at a local church (huge church with very nice acoustic in a really run down area) which had an absolutely gorgeous, almost untouched Binns in St Mark's Woodhouse in Leeds. The church was already in decline and the organ was showing its age (it used to wheeze and leak quite a lot), but it made a really super sound. I knew the church had closed, but was delighted to see at:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N02841

 

that the organ was dismantled and was being put in St Peter and Paul, Eye, in Suffolk.

 

Does anyone here know the organ in its new location, or perhaps you may have played it when it was in Leeds?

[JohnR]

I know a few people associated with Eye Parish Church so will ask and report back. The last I heard was that the project was some way off being finished.

 

Regarding the Abbott & Smith thread you mentioned, this has now gone cold. The last post on it was kindly entered on my behalf (before being validated for this forum). I mentioned on it that James Binns worked for Abbott & Smith from 1873 to 1880 and was head voicer for the latter part of his time there and then started his own firm in 1880. I'd mentioned another Suffolk organ in Eriswell which has pipes from 1873 with Binns inscriptions on the pipes, one of them actually bearing his name with the date May 1873. It is thought it may have been a very early Binns organ pre dating his own firm. It has a few interesting features and doesn't seem like an Aboot & Smith instrument.

 

John R

[mwl1]

I can't really offer a lot with regard to the organ, but I know that St Mark's is in a rather bad state and apparently will be converted into offices at some stage...

 

Has anyone played the organ at All Souls, Blackman Lane? This is very close to St Mark's. It's an impressive organ in an impressive church. The organ has a huge repair estimate. It's not likely to get done any time soon, given that the area is one of the most deprived in the city.

[Guest Patrick Coleman]

Has anyone played the organ at All Souls, Blackman Lane? This is very close to St Mark's. It's an impressive organ in an impressive church. The organ has a huge repair estimate. It's not likely to get done any time soon, given that the area is one of the most deprived in the city.

 

 

I have a lovely LP of Simon Lindley playing the organ at All Souls in the 1970s.

[andyorgan]

Is the church still in good use? I remember they used to have regular organ recitals there, just after the date of that Lindley recod you mentioned probably. What does he play on it?

[Guest Cynic]

I know a few people associated with Eye Parish Church so will ask and report back. The last I heard was that the project was some way off being finished.

 

Regarding the Abbott & Smith thread you mentioned, this has now gone cold*. The last post on it was kindly entered on my behalf (before being validated for this forum). I mentioned on it that James Binns worked for Abbott & Smith from 1873 to 1880 and was head voicer for the latter part of his time there and then started his own firm in 1880. I'd mentioned another Suffolk organ in Eriswell which has pipes from 1873 with Binns inscriptions on the pipes, one of them actually bearing his name with the date May 1873. It is thought it may have been a very early Binns organ pre dating his own firm. It has a few interesting features and doesn't seem like an Aboot & Smith instrument.

 

John R

 

Dear John,

* I believe you're panicking unduly, this cannot have been posted more than a day or so. Things do not go that cold fast on this forum unless they're in very bad taste indeed. I suggest if you want to know something

1. give it time and/or 2. repeat rephrase the question.

Don't give up hope! There is a wonderful repository of useful and usless knowledge among the regular participants.

Mind you, not everyone visits every day. You're asking about a particular organ fairly well off the beaten track, which may well reduce the numebr who can usefully comment. I hope you get lucky eventually.

 

BTW are you the same John Ramsbottam ** as in Sonic Services - makers of solid state switching?

Either way, you'll be welcome here.

 

P.

 

 

** Apologies, I cannot get back to the other post without losing this draft, I may have spelled your name incorrectly.

[Guest Patrick Coleman]

Is the church still in good use? I remember they used to have regular organ recitals there, just after the date of that Lindley recod you mentioned probably. What does he play on it?

 

On the All Souls organ he plays the Schumann Four Sketches op.58 and Reger's Chorale Prelude Straf mich nicht.

 

There are also recordings of Leeds Town Hall (Parry Chorale Fantasia on the Old 100th; Guilmant Ave Maria; Dubois Fiat Lux); Corpus Christi, Osmondthorpe (Haydn 3 Pieces for Musical Clock; Bossi Chant du Soir; Zipoli Offertorio); and Leeds Parish Church (The Liszt Prelude & Fugue on BACH).

 

Interestingly the recording, which was made in Sept 1978, was originally meant to include Armley, and according to the sleeve, the recording at Blackman Lane was done instead at short notice, with Simon Lindley driving around there early in the morning to ask if they could record later that afternoon! The organ still sounds magnificent, even if the recording must have come as a surprise to its muse!

 

I still enjoy listening to it after nearly 30 years!

 

Now off to the daughter church to officiate, preach and accompany the psalms & responses on the horrid Compton Miniatura (the organist there doesn't like accompanying psalms - but she's such a lovely person I don't like to insist for the sake of a psalm or two once a month!)

[mwl1]

Is the church still in good use? I remember they used to have regular organ recitals there, just after the date of that Lindley recod you mentioned probably. What does he play on it?

 

The church is indeed still in use. It's a smells-and-bells Anglo-Catholic church, with incense etc . It's wonderful!

 

 

 

St Mark's, however, is empty and neglected...

 

[andyorgan]

Thank you so much for these. Very sorry to see the bottom picture.

 

I passed the other side of St Mark's off Meanwood Road over Christmas, and from there you could see it was overgrown! I must pop into All Souls next time I'm up.

 

I wonder if news of the organ resurfacing in Suffolk is any closer?

[Contrabombarde]

The church is indeed still in use. It's a smells-and-bells Anglo-Catholic church, with incense etc . It's wonderful!

 

 

 

St Mark's, however, is empty and neglected...

 

 

I played the organ at All Souls Leeds during an Organ Club visit in 2004. It was mentioned that Abbott and Smith's workshop was round the corned from the church so the church benefitted from a free tuning contract with the mutual arrangement that they would allow demonstratrion of the All Soul's organ to prospective organ purchasors at any time.

[John Robinson]

Sorry to stray off-topic, but how did you get these pictures on here? (I'd like to do this for another topic).

 

John

[Pierre Lauwers]

Click on the fourth icon from the left just above the "reply" field. ("insert image")

You get a pop-up in which to enter the URL.

But we should be rather sparingly with it, since it takes much space

Mr Mander pays for.

 

Pierre

[John Robinson]

Click on the fourth icon from the left just above the "reply" field. ("insert image")

You get a pop-up in which to enter the URL.

But we should be rather sparingly with it, since it takes much space

Mr Mander pays for.

 

Pierre

 

Thanks, Pierre

 

Ah, I see that the image needs to be on another web site. That could be a problem.

 

Its just that I would appreciate comments on an idea I have for a pallet whose design could provide both a lighter touch and more control of the onset of speech. I haven't come across anything similar in existing designs. It would be completely tracker - that is, no electric or pneumatic assistance. I have no means of trying it out to see whether it would work and, of course, I could be barking up completely the wrong tree.

 

I think it would be best if I could provide an image to accompany the explanation of function. I have drawn a CAD image which I have saved as a bitmap.

 

Any ideas?

 

John

[Contrabombarde]

Thanks, Pierre

 

Ah, I see that the image needs to be on another web site. That could be a problem.

 

Its just that I would appreciate comments on an idea I have for a pallet whose design could provide both a lighter touch and more control of the onset of speech. I haven't come across anything similar in existing designs. It would be completely tracker - that is, no electric or pneumatic assistance. I have no means of trying it out to see whether it would work and, of course, I could be barking up completely the wrong tree.

 

I think it would be best if I could provide an image to accompany the explanation of function. I have drawn a CAD image which I have saved as a bitmap.

 

Any ideas?

 

John

 

There are plenty of free-to-join image-hosting websites such as imagecave.co and villagephotos.com. Bascially, you open an account with them then upload a photo, needs to be small filesize, typically less than 250kb, so make sure you can shrink it down first. Then just upload your photo, and it automatically creates a unique web address (URL) for the picture that you link as you would any other site. Keep photos small for the benefit of people with slow internet connections,k remember to relog in every month so they don't delete your account and off you go.

 

If you are having problems send me a message and I'll try to stick your picture up myself.

 

Contrabombarde

[John Robinson]

There are plenty of free-to-join image-hosting websites such as imagecave.co and villagephotos.com. Bascially, you open an account with them then upload a photo, needs to be small filesize, typically less than 250kb, so make sure you can shrink it down first. Then just upload your photo, and it automatically creates a unique web address (URL) for the picture that you link as you would any other site. Keep photos small for the benefit of people with slow internet connections,k remember to relog in every month so they don't delete your account and off you go.

 

If you are having problems send me a message and I'll try to stick your picture up myself.

 

Contrabombarde

 

Many thanks.

 

I shall do that when I have a few minutes.

 

John

[JohnR]

Dear John,

* I believe you're panicking unduly, this cannot have been posted more than a day or so. Things do not go that cold fast on this forum unless they're in very bad taste indeed. I suggest if you want to know something

1. give it time and/or 2. repeat rephrase the question.

Don't give up hope! There is a wonderful repository of useful and usless knowledge among the regular participants.

Mind you, not everyone visits every day. You're asking about a particular organ fairly well off the beaten track, which may well reduce the numebr who can usefully comment. I hope you get lucky eventually.

 

BTW are you the same John Ramsbottam ** as in Sonic Services - makers of solid state switching?

Either way, you'll be welcome here.

 

P.

** Apologies, I cannot get back to the other post without losing this draft, I may have spelled your name incorrectly.

 

 

Thanks for that and for your welcome. I take your point and now realise that threads do indeed keep going for a while.

 

Yes, I am the John Ramsbottom of Sonic Services. Don't worry about getting my name wrong, I'm used to almost any variation. Even my address has variations!

 

Am I right in saying you're Paul D? You can't be more 'Cynic' than me. Perhaps I should be 'Supercynic'. I could do with contacting you directly (re your pipes).

 

Regards,

 

John R

[JohnR]

Submitting to a previous thread on Abbot and Smith in Leeds, I remembered another organ I had played in my youth. I also used to play at a local church (huge church with very nice acoustic in a really run down area) which had an absolutely gorgeous, almost untouched Binns in St Mark's Woodhouse in Leeds. The church was already in decline and the organ was showing its age (it used to wheeze and leak quite a lot), but it made a really super sound. I knew the church had closed, but was delighted to see at:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N02841

 

that the organ was dismantled and was being put in St Peter and Paul, Eye, in Suffolk.

 

Does anyone here know the organ in its new location, or perhaps you may have played it when it was in Leeds?

 

Having made some enquiries I'm told the Binns organ is still in storage. Work on installing the organ is due to start in the Autumn with part of the organ being hopefully playable by next March. There are plans to augment the instrument (although I hope the existing pipework is not altered). There is an aim to raise £600,000 both for the organ and alterations to the church.

 

John R

[Goldsmith]

Submitting to a previous thread on Abbot and Smith in Leeds, I remembered another organ I had played in my youth. I also used to play at a local church (huge church with very nice acoustic in a really run down area) which had an absolutely gorgeous, almost untouched Binns in St Mark's Woodhouse in Leeds. The church was already in decline and the organ was showing its age (it used to wheeze and leak quite a lot), but it made a really super sound. I knew the church had closed, but was delighted to see at:

 

http://npor.emma.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch...ec_index=N02841

 

that the organ was dismantled and was being put in St Peter and Paul, Eye, in Suffolk.

 

Does anyone here know the organ in its new location, or perhaps you may have played it when it was in Leeds?

 

I used to play this instrument as a student in Leeds about 16 years ago; St Mark's had just been re-opened, after a period of closure made necessary by the occasional chunk of falling masonry. Gorgeous instrument in a lovely church/acoustic.

 

I also used to deputize at All Souls. Here, it was told that the organ had been used by A&S as a 'demonstration' instrument, thanks to it's close proximity to the A&S factory. The pipework of the Great mixture had been removed, apparently when the lady donor had left the parish in a fit of pique! Another glorious building with a small but dedicated community, which had just been re-founded as a 'plant' from St Michael, Headingley, following some serious difficulties.

 

My 'everyday' practice instrument was at St Augustine, Wrangthorn. Another beautifully voiced A&S of great character - and a versatility not obvious from its spec - though in poor shape.

 

Cheers,

 

G

[andyorgan]

I used to play this instrument as a student in Leeds about 16 years ago; St Mark's had just been re-opened, after a period of closure made necessary by the occasional chunk of falling masonry. Gorgeous instrument in a lovely church/acoustic.

 

I also used to deputize at All Souls. Here, it was told that the organ had been used by A&S as a 'demonstration' instrument, thanks to it's close proximity to the A&S factory. The pipework of the Great mixture had been removed, apparently when the lady donor had left the parish in a fit of pique! Another glorious building with a small but dedicated community, which had just been re-founded as a 'plant' from St Michael, Headingley, following some serious difficulties.

 

My 'everyday' practice instrument was at St Augustine, Wrangthorn. Another beautifully voiced A&S of great character - and a versatility not obvious from its spec - though in poor shape.

 

Cheers,

 

G

 

Wrangthorn was the first place I played at that I got paid for (princely sum of £3, I thought I was rich!) Our choir used to sing there regularly and the very nice vicar had a bit of an unfortunate stutter, which meant the announcement of hymns was always very entertaining! The instrument had rather a nice CHoir if I remember, though the thing was always short of wind!

 

If you were there practicing about 16 years ago, we must have only just missed, as I stopped playing there in about 1989.