Lancaster Cathedral Organ

The 1889 Organ by Ainscough of Preston was rebuilt in 2008 & 2009. The interior of the instrument was suffering from a level of dirt which had affected the speech of many pipes. The leatherwork, much of it original, was in a parlous state. The electro-mechanical switching system had also become unreliable. This instrument was comprehensively Cleaned and Overhauled with the re-leathering of the reservoirs and total redesign of soundboard actions, replacement of the transmission and note-switching systems.

The organ is situated in two cases on a west gallery in the cathedral and is, tonally, one of the best instruments in this part of the country: specifically, the Swell reeds are spectacular in the glorious acoustic of this fine Neo-gothic Cathedral. Due to the poor construction quality of the 1970s console, it was decided to replace this with a new East-facing terraced console.

Gallery

The Primary Actions have been causing problems
for a long time due to their poor design
and manufacture causing wind to leak from valve to valve

Soundboard Grids after
Flooding and Shooting

Re-assembling Soundboards

Re-assembling the Soundboards

Re-leathering the Internal Pulldown Motors

Soundboard & Motors
back together

The Table, Bearers & Slides

Colloidal Graphite
applied to the slides
for lubrication

Upperboards re-instated

The badly designed Primary
Actions have now been
replaced with large
Compound Magnets
(Coffin Magnets)
to enable extremely quick
note repetition

Worn out Ribbed Drawstop Motors
caused by having no quirk

Re-leathering and ensuring
a correct quirk

Following re-assembly and thorough testing

Remaking Floating Frames and the Bellows Top

The Ribs having
been leathered

Working on the
Bellows Ribs

Nearing completion

The joining point
of the main Bellows

The two halves reunited

Re-instating a Waste Pallet

The Bellows-work ready
to be returned
to the organ

Rusted Tuning Pieces
from the Choir
Flauto Traverso

New tuning pieces
of spotted metal
fitted to the
Flauto Traverso

Over 30 years of dust
and dirt on a
Pipe Stopper

After cleaning and rounding out
the pipes are put back on speech

Making new Tuning Slides

Wooden Trombone Boots

Wildlife and debris living inside the reeds

The Trombone resonators following cleaning and repair

The 1970s Console dismantled

Manufacture of the new Console

Bushing the Terraces

Wiring the Keys & Drawstops

Wiring the Solid State

The completed Console

GREAT ORGAN			CHOIR ORGAN (enclosed)
1.	Double Open Diapason	16	23.	Lieblich Gedackt	8
2.	Open Diapason No. 1	8	24.	Gamba	8
3.	Open Diapason No. 2	8	25.	Dulciana	8
4.	Hohl Flute	8	26.	Flauto Traverso	4
5.	Principal	4	27.	Salicet	4
6.	Harmonic Flute	4	28.	Piccolo	2
7.	Twelfth	2 2/3	29.	Clarinet	8
8.	Fifteenth	2	30.	Trumpet (Gt.)	8
9.	Mixture	3&4 rks	31.	Trompette (Gt.)	prepared
10.	Trumpet	8		Tremolo
11.	Trompette	prepared		Choir Octave
	Swell to Great			Swell to Choir

SWELL ORGAN (enclosed)			PEDAL ORGAN
12.	Bourdon	16	32.	Resultant Bass	32
13.	Open Diapason	8	33.	Open Diapason	16
14.	Flute	8	34.	Crontra Bass	16
15.	Salicional	8	35.	Sub Bass	16
16.	Voix Céleste (TC)	8	36.	Bourdon	16
17.	Principal	4	37.	Principal	8
18.	Mixture	2&3 rks	38.	Bass Flute	8
19.	Vox Humana	8	39.	Quint	51/3
20.	Oboe	8	40.	Octave Flute	4
21.	Horn	8	41.	Harmonics	32
22.	Clarion	4	42.	Trombone	16
	Tremulant			Swell to Pedal
	Swell Octave			Great to Pedal
	Reeds Sub Octave			Choir to Pedal

Six Divisional Thumb Pistons to Swell, Great & Choir
Six Divisional Toe Levers to Swell & Pedal
Six General Thumb Pistons
Reversible pistons for couplers
250 levels of memory
Stepper & Sequencer with Advance & Retard Thumb Pistons & Toe Levers
Transposer
Full MIDI Capability