Hillie2412

Another secret Another of my secrets has been unravelled The other day, nice Mr Steve was looking at one of my beams (he obviously had nothing better to do) and spotted some scratchings.  Some of this appeared, he thought, to be chorister initials, or maybe the initials of a former organ player or two Then he looked more closely and spotted the number 60, etched in to the timber Looking at another horizontal beam, which folk already realised has my real name 2412 (but we much prefer Hillie don't we?) etched in, he realised that there was the number 61 etched in at one end, where it joins one of my upright, main pillars Bingo!! (or should that be "bourdon"?).  These are numbers made by Mr William, in 1911, to help his team of men put me together! The secret, now revealed, is that I am a kit girl.  I was put together in Mr William's London workshop, then before taken apart for bringing here to my lovely Abbey, they etched numbers onto my beams w

New boards From my lofty perch, I can see 2 new display boards down below These boards, people tell me (I can’t actually see what’s on them!) have pictures of me, in all my unfinished, dirty glory, and information about my history and the work that’s planned to start after Easter These boards are also (so I’m told) so colourful that a casual visitor to the Abbey cannot fail to see them.   Some of the writing might be a little on the small side, but if that encourages visitors to get all close and personal, then that’s all good. Why is all this important? Well I am of course a very modest old lady, so it is good for someone else to extol my many virtues, and explain how much improved I will be after all the work is completed.   But there is also talk of money - the modern kind, not my favourite pounds shillings and pence.   Bearing in mind I only cost £1,100, isn’t it amazing that over £125,000 has now been raised towards the cost of my renovation and completio

Stormy! We've just had a massive storm.  I'm told it was called Ciara, though I've no idea why that lovely name should be given to such stormy weather Well the wind swirled around my Abbey, and the rain lashed down.  Then there was the most tremendous bang, right in the middle of Morning Prayer, and some of my friends discovered lots of tiles had slid down the roof.  I haven't seen this for myself, obviously, but did hear the crash and certainly heard all the discussion that followed Storm Ciara was massive, but over my 108 years, I've seen others, although maybe not so windy.  In 1947 the nearby River Severn rose so high that a rowing boat came up the central aisle to make sure I was still alright.  Then, in 1960 the roads outside were completely flooded as they were again in 1998.  Pictures in the Abbey show all of this! Later, during wonderful choral evensong, I got the blame for an A flat whistle.  Mr Steve thought I had developed a cypher.  Now

Another spectacular recital I’ve already told you about the wonderful organists coming to play me, your friend Hillie, each month.   These are international recitalists!   They are used to playing the top organs in Great Britain and abroad.   Yet here they come, to help put me on the map, and to help raise money for my renovation and completion. The second of these organists played just recently.   This was Miss Catherine (Ennis) and she played music all about angels including one piece by my most favourite of all composers, Sir Edward Her playing was just marvellous.   She made me sound as if I was young again, and brought out all sorts of sounds I hadn’t heard in many a year And so many people had come to hear me, and hear her play.   My friends counted more than 120 people, and I’m sure there were other folk lurking in corners All that is amazing.   Also amazing is that I’m told Miss Catherine played in her winter coat.   Now I don’t complain about the cold (ac

How old am I really? Dear friends, you know that I was installed by Mr William in 1911.   The pipes for my bottom keyboard were added a year later and various other missing pipes appeared during the 1930s and 1940s. But do I have older-still pipes? This is one of my innermost secrets, one that I know Mr Gary hopes to unravel this year. The Abbey had its first organ in 1806.   This was built by John Gray, who was probably the finest builder of his day.   This organ had two keyboards, a few pedal notes (pedals were still uncommon in England at that time) and 797 pipes.   The Gray organ seems initially to have been built into a gallery under the tower at the west end of the building, but then moved at least twice.   By 1883 it was in the south east corner of the Abbey which, at that time, had yet to be extended to the East.   By 1891, once the new Chancel has been built, it had been moved to my present position, and recently found photographs prove that to be the case.