Yesterday we had the rare opportunity to tour the Nicholson & Co. Ltd Factory, a British organ factory which was founded by John Nicholson (1815–1895) in 1841. One of their most important projects is the restoration of the Gloucester Cathedral organ, which is projected to be completed in 2026, the year of the next Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester. They are also in charge of the restoration of Leeds Town Hall, and the restoration of the Manchester Cavaillé-Coll.

We were first shown two different types of key action, pneumatic and tracker action. I’m afraid that for most people on the tour, this was too complicated to understand, although the company had built two models.

We next went into the wood shop, where wooden pipes are made, and other parts of the organ, such as windchests, keydesks, pedalboards, rackboards, etc. are manufactured. Of course, every organ is a custom build, and requires many, many hours of work by hand.

I was most interested in the company’s reconstruction business, and learned that a small portion of the old pipe is cut off, and its metal content is analyzed to reconstruct a new pipe. You can see how much destruction there was in these façade pipes where the whole back of the pipe was cut off. The organbuilders will then solder the new piece to the old pipe and artisans will touch up the colored paint on the front of the pipe. Sometimes woodcrafters must fabricate new pipe shades to match existing designs.

It was all quite fascinating — but to me, I was most interested in “Norman,” a stuffed animal dog which was found in the organ chest of Gloucester Cathedral, keeping watch! We were told that “Norman” will be put back in the organ chest when the Gloucester Cathedral organ is completed.

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In the afternoon, there was a special live broadcast of Evensong for the BBC and of course, everyone had to be extra-quiet until the red broadcast light went off. Nicholas Freestone, the organist, has really had his work cut out for him this week, as he has been the organist for the Sunday Eucharist, plus every daily Evensong, playing preludes, postludes, and anthem accompaniments for all, in addition to a few concerts. For the BBC broadcast, he played Bach’s big Prelude and Fugue in Eb (the so-called St. Anne, BWV 551), and people were quiet enough for the prelude (which he played for the postlude), but then as he began playing the Fugue, everyone started walking out and talking (!) except for a few of us die-hards. Believe me, I appreciate all of Nicholas’ hard work!

The evening concert was Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, accompanied only by two pianos and harmonium, a most unusual combination. This light-hearted work was more like a comic opera, and brought many smiles to people’s faces!