St Mary and St Nicholas with All Saints, Leatherhead
The 1766 Thomas Parker organ

Progress Report 1, 13th February 2007
all images by permission of Goetze & Gwynn unless otherwise stated

The Progress Reports are intended to coincide with the stage payments during the restoration of the organ.

Research, documentation and planning
After collecting the organ parts from the church, initial examination and storage, the next stage was to document what survives and carry out research on other organs that are suitable examples to use for comparison.

The Great soundboard was measured and drawn using CAD, as were the keyboards.

The pipes were sorted, cleaned and measured. A comparison chart of the metal pipes showed that it was very likely that a single scale had been employed, most stops the same size, the Twelfth one pipe smaller and the Sesquialtra three pipes smaller. Metal samples were sent to the Sheffield Assay Office for analysis. There are many fragments of front pipes which had broken under the heat of the fire of 1989, providing plenty of material available for testing.

The Parker organ in the estate chapel at Great Packington is nearly unaltered, and of a very similar size to the Leatherhead instrument. A visit was made to examine the wind system, action and other elements that were lacking in the Leatherhead organ.

We had measured some of the pipes on an earlier visit, and these details were also found to be very useful as comparisons and models for missing or altered ranks, e.g. the metal treble pipes of the Stopped Diapason, and the cut-ups of the wood pipes. We have restored the Parker chamber organs in Merton College (Oxford), Liss (now in Kew Palace), and the Russell collection (Edinburgh). They were useful as background information rather than direct comparison, being of a smaller scale than Great Packington. The organ in Barnsley Parish Church has the original lower portions of the Trumpet surviving, providing the sizes for the Leatherhead one.

After the research, the working drawings were made, overall dimensions and design taken from the Walker Shop Book entry of 1843, and the Sperling drawing.

Restoration work

Casework
Timber for the new parts was selected and sawn to rough dimensions, then stacked in the wood racks.

Wood pipes
Nearly all the wood pipes have raised, arched cut-ups which results in a significant alteration to the sound. Many were falling apart, and some testing indicated that a good method of lowering the cut-up was to splice a new portion of wood into the underside of the pipe front.

Keyboards
The keyboards were cleaned and repaired. The key heads of the centre section of the Great keyboard were very worn, and the best solution was to replace these, keeping the originals.

Soundboards
The Great soundboard had the splits and lifting table boards which we have come to expect in situations where drying out has occurred. The small sections of lifted table had been in this condition for long enough to make re-gluing an unreliable method of attachment. After cleaning, hot glue size was poured into all the channels to a depth of about 1cm and then drained.

The soundboard was turned over and, with the wood still warmed, the table gradually screwed down along the splits using stainless steel screws. Gaps remaining were routed and new timber glued in.

Turning the soundboard over, the channel bottoms were lined with linen tape. The surfaces have been flattened, a new pallet box made and fitted, and the restored pallets glued back on. The upperboards are ready to be restored.

The new Swell soundboard is nearly complete.

Metal pipes
The metal pipes have been cleaned, returned into their original rank positions as far as possible, and repaired and extended. Extensive re-voicing has occurred over the years, most significantly after 1843. Nicking has been deepened and cut-ups have been raised. Experiments with some pipes from the Twelfth has led to the decision that some of the pipework needed more work than we normally carry out: selected pipes which have clearly been very altered were cut apart at the mouth, and the languids re-faced before being re-assembled. Each pipe in every rank was examined before any decision was made for it to receive this treatment. The unaltered pipes of Great Packington will be used as the model for the voicing style when this is carried out.

The front pipes are now being restored. Some have been fire damaged, and the more intense heat at higher levels resulted in collapse of the material towards the top, the solder seam being the first part to melt. As much of the original metal has been retained and repaired. Some original front pipes had been moved inside the organ, and pinched pipe feet indicated where they had been held in a rackboard. Some more work is required on these pipes, and a few new ones made.

Martin Goetze
Goetze & Gwynn

View of the choir vestry attic room at Leatherhead
Parish Church before removal of the Parker organ remains

Salvaged fragments of fire damaged front pipes

At the start of repairs in our workshop

Centre part of the keyboards before restoration, showing the worn natural heads
New natural key head	Repaired sharp body with cleaned top

Finished keyboards (final polishing to be carried out with the casework)

Wood pipes before restoration	Tim removing a pipe front
Largest and smallest pipe fronts	Spliced pipe front with lowered cut-up

Pipes during restoration. On the bench, a new GG is having its front glued on	Backs of the front pipes showing the melted solder seams
Rackboard marks in the smaller front pipe feet	Pipe feet after repair

Slider ends in position, before restoration	Centre bar, showing the later channelling
Edward warming the bar before gluing in a cloth strip	Finished channel

Altered upper boards	Dominic and Edward preparing for the pallets
Pallets before gluing to sheepskin

Leatherhead Parish Church