Hillie2412

  COMPLETE AT LAST   Today - 1 April 2022 - I can tell you my dear friends that I am complete.  At last   No, although as I write this I see it is the 1 st April, it is not a joke; it has really happened   110 years ago, Mr William’s clever design for your friend Hillie was partially completed.  Some more work followed one year later, then more in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, but it still left me without the really bold trumpety sounds, and the really deep firm sounds Mr William had always intended.  After all, I sit in very large space in a very large building, which I was designed to fill with glorious sound, but until now that was not possible   Mr Gary started his work 2 years ago, and as well as cleaning everything, sorting out wind leaks, lifting my blowers and reservoirs and restoring my lovely keyboards, he added a lot of my missing pipes   However, one set of 30 pedal pipes was still missing - until today.  In 1945, ho...

  MR GARY’S FITNESS REGIME   If you look at old pictures of the choir, and particularly at the pictures of my young friends the choirboys, you can see how strong they look   Why?   Here’s the secret For the first 10 years of my life, Mr Percy (sic) (Pilcher) could only play the organ if choirboys were on hand - literally - for they supplied the muscle or arm power to fill my reservoirs with air   I seem to remember it took two choirboys to pump my bellows - and a third was always on hand in case Mr Percy decided to pull out all the stops, in which case they’d have to pump even faster and harder   So for 10 year this was part of the choirboys job - taking time away from singing hymns, canticles and anthems to keep me going   Then in 1921 it all changed.  I became electric.  Well not extensively, just in the blowing department.  A huge monstrously large electric blower in a brick box was placed in my basement area and the han...

I take the Biscuit! Crumbs, really? Yes, really.  I am such a modern old lady, with my own blog as you know, that I’m now available to see on a “podcast” My friends tell me that Shrewsbury biscuits are iconic and famous.  And they help put this lovely town on tourist trails The Shrewsbury Biscuit podcasts are also iconic and famous, and also help put this lovely town on tourist trails, but they are to listen to rather than to eat One day last year I was visited by nice Mr Alex, complete with camera, headphones and microphone, and he spent time climbing around my platforms, talking to some of my Abbey friends, and listening to my wonderful sounds He was amazed - of course.   I’m not sure he had realised just what a complicated old lady I am, or how many pipes of all different shapes and sizes I have, or indeed that you can climb up a ladder to view all my innermost workings So yes, he was astonished and loved seeing and hearing me.  He took lots of ...