G P England organ case

In 1856 St Peter’s church in Chester installed a new Willis organ to replace a smaller organ that had been in place since 1822. This organ was sold, having been advertised in the Chester Chronicle, and was acquired at some by Saltney Methodist church where it remained until no longer required about 20 years ago. It was then placed in storage where inevitably some pieces have gone astray. This organ is now being restored for installation in a church - the action and pipework by Martin Renshaw in France and the case in my workshop in Birling. One bit that had gone missing was a tower cap and the first job was to make a copy of the surviving matching cap. See my blog for details. Once this was done the upper part of the case (above the impost) was assembled and a new back was made in pine. This is a very nice example of a classical English organ case of the late 18th century and was probably originally made as a chamber organ. The lower part of the case around the console will require more work as it suffered by being cut about quite a bit.