St Pierre-à-Champ (France)

This tiny two-stop organ was probably built around the middle of the 19C. There is nothing that identifies the original builder except a reservoir weight bearing the initials GMH - George Maydwell Holdich - but that is not definitive as the weight could easily have come from another organ. It had been partially restored some years ago but sat in the corner of an organ builder’s workshop after that. Martin Renshaw and I restored it during the winter of 2013 for a small church in France that had recently been completely renovated. The stopped 8’ and the principal 4’ sing out beautifully in the church. The case was restored by local artisans and is decorated with trompe d’oeil musical motifs.

The above photograph show the inner workings of the organ just before it left the Birling workshop. The bass pipes of the stopped diapason are mounted just above the keyboard on a new chest with a rebuilt rollerboard for the key action just visible underneath.