Hillie2412

The quietest places under the sun There was another large congregation last weekend.    The Shropshire Society in London celebrated the 120 th anniversary of its refounding with a service in my Abbey, and I’m told the Society has been in existence since the 1740s Well, all these people came to celebrate, and did they sing nicely!   And the lovely choir sang music by my favourite composers, Smart and Stainer and there was even some Elgar music played on my lovely pipes.   I did my very best as usual, and tried soooo hard to make my voice heard while all these people were singing hymns But my most favourite bit was when the Society’s Vice President read from Shropshire Lad “Clunton, Clunbury, Clungunford and Clun are the quietest places under the sun” he read, and you could have heard a pin drop This was written in 1895, around the time when Mr John (Loughborough Pearson) built the lovely extension I sit in.   Now I’ve never seen these villa...

Do I need rules The other day one of the choir men   -   Mr Mike   -   found a copy of the rules for a French organ.   Here’s a picture of them Well there are two problems with these.   They’re written in French, which shouldn’t be a surprise, and there are too many of them My rules are simple   -   and there are only 11 of them ·          No matches or smoking ·          No extra heating   -   I prefer it to be cold rather than too hot ·          No spitting ·          No controversial politics ·          No eating or drinking inside or at the console ·          No visits to the nearest pub during sermons ·          No more dust ple...

I'm so excited!! I have been telling you my story and telling you about all my problems And then there were rumours that there might at long last be some work planned for my insides. It now seems that those rumours were right That nice Mr Gary is going to restore me!!  And it's going to happen next year, starting just after Easter.  He's going to give all my lovely pipes a good-old clean. He's going to take out all those dusty, squiggly tubes and put in electric switches. He's going to repel the invading wood boring insects that keep working their way into my frame. My keyboards will be made as good as new.  Mr Gary is even hoping to fill that gap in my shuttery box with proper trumpety pipes that will fill this great building with lovely sound Yes, he's going to help me to work properly so that everyone will realise just what clever Mr William intended me to do I'm now a grand old lady. When this work starts I will be 108 years old...

I did my best! The other evening we had a huge congregation.   The occasion was the installation of and welcome to a new vicar, Rev Dr Tom. It was a lovely evening.   Lots of people turned up, and there was a bishop, archdeacon, High Sheriff and Deputy Lord Lieutenant and over 200 people, as well as the wonderful Abbey choir. I’ve counted up the number of vicars that I’ve known since my installation 108 years ago.   The vicar then was Rev Blaxland and since he left in 1926 there have been another 8. The music was wonderful   -   Stanford, Sumsion and Handel   -   as you will see, none of that modern French music Mr Peter is so keen on.   And the choir sang beautifully. There were also 6 hymns and I have to say all the congregation really sang with great enthusiasm.   But it was quite obvious to me that, although I did my very best, I am just not big enough to help such a large congregation with their hymn singing.  ...

Is something planned for me? Rumour has reached me that plans are afoot.   It might be that all that accumulated dirt will be removed, my lovely pipes cleaned, solonoids brought in to replace some of the yards (not metres!) of lead tubes, and the whole console brought back to how it looked when Mr William made me There’s even talk of the space at the front of my top (swell) box being filled with trumpety stops from a cousin organ that’s no longer needed This is sooooo exciting and I can’t wait for it to happen. It will make such a difference to the sound I produce and will make me much more reliable But I’m also told that this will cost many pounds, and the piggy bank hasn’t yet got enough money to cover it all, although we do already have a lot of money stored away I remember something similar in 1911.   When I was installed, there wasn’t enough money to complete Mr William’s scheme, and even now I am still waiting for some of my most important pipes...