Hillie2412

Gaunt?   As you know dear friends, for the last few weeks I have been covered in poles and boards.   This isn’t a new trend in organ design (although I know there are a lot of newfangled ideas around, but nice Mr Gary is going to keep all those modern ideas at bay) but was to give Mr Gary’s henchpeople access to the very highest of all my lovely features   And to the surprise of many people, one of the new views has been of a hideaway, high up beyond my lovely large open wood pipes.   Known only to me and to my organ playing friends, this spot has been an ideal place for passing away long sermons and avoiding some of the excesses of French choral music   These high boards (not for diving) have given access to much of the high level stonework and to ledges and crevices in this ancient building.   Henry has been very busy cleaning wherever he could   Mr Gary and Mr Simon have been so busy polishing up my case, and cleaning my bonnet box, ...

Diapason muddle Now which diapason is which?   My friends claim to know some facts about my lovely open diapasons, but seem to be totally confused about which one is which and from where My friends, do try and keep up and remember I know the answers to all of this, but you have just got to try and work it out for yourselves Fact 1.   Mr William put an open diapason on the great (middle) keyboard in 1911.   Fact 2.   The second (smaller) diapason was not installed at that time   -   it was one of the stops left off because the money seemed to run out.   Fact 3.   A second diapason was eventually installed in 1937 (?) by Mr William’s successor company, Messrs HNB (Hill Norman and Beard) Now that all sounds very straightforward doesn’t it But this is where it gets complicated A few years ago, a national organ expert working for a company with a name similar to a well-known sweet shop, spotted that one of the lovely diapa...

Dust!! Guess what I have been doing for the last 60 years Whistling?   Yes, occasionally Sounding wonderful?   Yes, nearly always Looking forward to being finished?   Yes, of course But that’s not what I had in mind Over the last 60 years I have been accumulating dust.   Piles and piles of it!   Yes, I am a truly filthy old lady! Dust is everywhere.   My upper and rack boards are covered in it.   You can see layers of dust on all my lovely pipes.   The sides of my lovely massive reservoirs are caked in it.   It’s even spread to the ledges on the wall behind me How does it get here?   Well my friends have told me that dust is fine, dry particles of matter found in the air, typically consisting of soil lifted up by the wind, pollen, hair etc.   That doesn’t answer my question, but as I’ve got plenty of wind (and sometimes it’s known to leak through the many cracks in my chests and trunks) maybe that’s par...

More Secrets More about my secrets   -   remember they are for me to know, and for you to find out! I thought you’d like to see a picture of the old pumping handle found in my nethermost regions.   Do note, it’s not very clean but has lots of potential.   Maybe I could have taken more of a close up shot (it really was quite dark down there) for more of the detail, but still visible are it’s pivot points and a rubber bung, so stop it banging too hard on the reservoir And I’d like to reveal a little about my forebears.   You probably know that I replaced an organ with over 100 years of use in the Abbey.   This smaller instrument   -   too small for the greatly increased space following Mr John’s extension in the 1880s   -   was in exactly the same place as me, and therefore had to be dismantled and removed before I could be installed.   The older organ, built by another famous Mr John (Gray) in 1806 and managed a cook’s ...