Dismantle and survey
Four weeks on site. 4,112 pipes drawn, tagged and crated; the Great windchest photographed before the lift because the 1878 pencil marks would not have survived it.
Opus 214 · rebuild log
Three years, four thousand pipes, and a console we rebuilt twice.
The instrument left St Chad’s in November 2022 with water through the swell box and a split windchest table. What follows is taken from the workshop diary — the dates are when each stage was signed off, not when it started.
Windchest rebuild
New quartersawn oak tables, releathered throughout. The original pallet springs were kept — 91 of 96 tested within tolerance, and the five that failed were rewound to the same gauge.
Pipework and revoicing
Every rank washed, dents raised, languids reset to the original nicking. The Swell Oboe had been revoiced in 1961 and was returned to its 1878 scaling from the one surviving pattern pipe.
Reinstallation and regulation
Eleven days of regulation in the building, most of it after nine at night once the heating had settled. Final tuning at A=440 and 18°C, which is what the church holds on a Sunday.
Pipes returned to the instrument, by division4,112 total
Great1,204
Swell1,086
Choir842
Pedal596
Solo384
Rank-by-rank condition reports are lodged with the National Pipe Organ Register and may be consulted without an appointment.