The organ in St Paul's is nearly 100 years old and has given excellent service over the years. The time has now come for extensive work to be done on the organ to ensure its continued operation and to preserve it for future generations.

The work falls into 3 main categories

• Re-leathering the wind reservoirs
• Electrifying the action
• Restoration of the case

There are 4 wind reservoirs in the organ and their job is to store and steady the wind supplied by the blower. Over time, the leather dries and cracks and wind leaks out. They have been patched up over the years to keep them going but they are on their last legs and must be re-leathered.

The main bellows is the largest of the reservoirs. It is a double rise bellows so there is more work required to releather it.

The swell bellows. Contrast the old leather with the strip of new leather used to repair a split.

The mechanism which connects the organ keys to the pipes in St Paul's is pneumatic. Narrow lead tubes containing high pressure air make the pipes speak when a key is pressed. The workings of the mechanism are now becoming unreliable and some accessories at the console haven't worked for years. Electrifying the system with a state of the art solid state system will not only cure these problems but will give us more console aids. It will also facilitate the connection of the 'prepared for' stops for which we now have the pipes through the generosity of many churches.

The electrification process will require that every single pipe will have to be removed from the organ which will give us the opportunity to have all the pipes cleaned and their voicing checked.

Finally, the last part of the restoration will be to return the organ case to its former glory with the woodwork painted grey to match the brickwork of the church and the pipes painted silver.

The target is £106,000 and already we have had generous donations towards the project. Nothing Fancy, a local second hand furniture shop has very kindly agreed to collect for us and sell any items of furniture given to them by the church on our behalf. We thank them most warmly for their much valued support.