The Organ

The organ at St Paul’s dates from 1892. It was built by William Hill and Son, a highly respected firm of organ builders of that time. It has been added to over the years but the basic tone is recognised as typical of the work of Hill. It has a lovely “English” sound which is assisted by the excellent acoustics of the church. The organ chamber houses more than 1,500 pipes and underneath them are the bellows which are filled with air from two electric motors. The finely carved organ case by Kempe faces into the chancel and provides a display of speaking pipes.

In 1959 a major re-build was undertaken by Percy Daniel and Co. Ltd. of Clevedon, Avon, who maintained the organ for many years. A new console was provided and moved into the nave and there were tonal improvements and additions which achieved a greater brightness of sound, including a new Trumpet stop which is particularly fine and even. The organ was then a two-manual instrument consisting of Great and Swell (as well as the Pedal section), but provision was made for a third section or department, a Positive, which was completed in 1975 when five new stops were added, two of them from old organs.

In 1981 and 2000 the instrument was overhauled with all the pipes removed for cleaning and some repairs made to the action. In 2019 a major rebuild of the Great underaction and the replacement of perishable leather components with new compound magnets was completed successfully by Gary Owens Organ Builders of Eaton Bishop, Herefordshire. The ageing humidifier was replaced with a modern carbon fibre model by specialists Watkins & Watson Ltd of Hamworthy, Dorset in August 2020.