As a complement to my organ-building business I have a number of research interests that are based around the English organ prior to 1850. By ‘English organ’ I mean organs of one to three manuals with no, or only a rudimentary, pedalboard as well as having a distinctive tonal structure. In addition to the instruments there are also personalities, players and composers, about whom we know very little. In particular, I have a longstanding interest in William Herschel, whose substantial musical career, including being an organist in the English provinces, was eclipsed by his subsequent meteoric rise to fame as an internationally-known astronomer (puns intended!). More recently, I have developed an interest in the organist members of the Valentine family of Leicester that has led me to a wider study of women organists in late-Georgian England.
