Organ given voice in creator’s home city after decades
IT HAD been a pipe dream for years to resurrect a masterpiece by the renowned, 19th century organ builder William Denman in his home city.
Yesterday, on a newly reinforced concrete floor in the North Transept of York’s second largest church, workmen began lowering the six- ton instrument into place.
It is some 25 years since it was last played, in its previous home a mile away at St Michael le Belfrey on High Petergate. It was removed from there last year and taken to Worcestershire for specialist restoration – while in the meantime other workmen have been preparing for its arrival at St Lawrence parish church, next to York Minster.
“It’s a formidably large instrument, one of the largest Denman built,” said Henry Dyer at the church. “It is fitting that it will be heard again in the largest church in his own city, apart from the Minster.”
It will replace a digital Ahlborn organ which had previously seen service in a prison and was procured by a warden at St Lawrence “from a skip”, Mr Dyer said.
“It was a fine instrument but a digital organ can’t produce the same variety of tones as a Denman,” he added.
It will take around 10 weeks for the organ to acclimatise to its surroundings, before its debut performance in the autumn.
Jonty Ward, organist at St Lawrence, said it would be the first in 137 years to “properly fit with the stature of the building, both visually and musically”.
It has cost around £ 350,000 to move and restore the organ, which had deteriorated to the point where it could no longer be played.
The year- long overhaul has seen all the pipes cleaned and repaired, or in some cases replaced by pieces that match Denman’s original 1885 designs.
Andrew Caskie, of the organ restorer Nicholson and Co, said: “This will be one of the finest organs not only in York, but in the North of England.”