The organ crawl around four churches in the Cartmel area took place on Saturday 15th November.

We met at St. Paul's in Grange-over-Sands where the organist, Mrs. Walker, gave a brief introduction and demonstration before the customary playing by members. The organ, although once thought to be by Willis, was built by William Hill in 1875, and rebuilt by Wilkinson & Sons of Kendal in 1933. It is reasonably large: the Great and Swell each have 9 stops, and the Pedal has 5 stops. The action is electro-pneumatic and extremely sensitive, presenting some difficulties for inexperienced players.

Alan Mason at Grange

After lunch we reconvened at St. John the Baptist, Flookburgh, where there is an organ of similar proportions (Pedal 4, Great 10, Swell 8) built by Brindley and Foster in 1900 and rebuilt by Rushworth and Dreaper in 2000. Sadly, some of the Great stops had to be removed as they were in a dangerous condition. Hugh Davies "complained" that the shape of the black keys was uncomfortable, but still delivered a fine performance of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D major - (or at least as much of it as he could remember).

Chris Price at Flookburgh

We then continued to the finest organ and church of the day at Field Broughton. St. Peter's is an imposing building with a tower and spire, containing a Forster and Andrews instrument, totally untouched since 1894 and still in amazing condition. The stops blend perfectly in almost any combination - the sign of a master builder.

The final church of the day was St. Paul's at Lindale, where there is an organ by Wilkinson and Sons of 1873 with a BIOS Historic Organs Certificate. It has 1 Pedal, 8 Great and 4 Swell stops.

Colin Rae at Lindale

As usual, the day was most enjoyable. Our thanks go to Anne Emmett for arranging the event, and to Adrian Self who prepared information in advance and gave superb performances of Bach's "Short Eight" Preludes and Fugues at each church.

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