The New Tackley Organ

Since Victorian times, many churches have installed organs to accompany singing and provide music at religious services. Before this, some rural churches would have had a small band of amateur musicians to provide the music, such as delightfully featured in the novel Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy. The pipe organ in the parish church of St Nicholas, Tackley, was built in the early part of the 20th century by the (now defunct) Oxford-based firm of George Jackson. It has served the church well for many years, but it is now wearing out after more than 50 years of music and mice(!) and the church has been considering for some time what to do to renovate or replace it for the future.

The current organ in St Nicholas and the new organ in the process of being built

The organ was not originally built for Tackley church but was probably moved here sometime during the mid-20th century. There is a tradition that it was originally built for an early (pre-First World War?) cinema, though expert opinion thinks it more likely that it was constructed for a private house. As a result, the range of sounds it can produce is quite limited and quiet by the normal standards of a church organ, and it isn’t well suited to support congregational singing when the church is full. The history of the present organ is actually not that well known, so if anyone in the village knows anything more definite about how and when it came to be installed in the church, I’d be very interested to know (feel free to contact me directly).

Thanks to an amazingly generous legacy from Bob Clow (who, following his mother, was the church organist for many years, among many other roles in the village and elsewhere, until his death in 2014), supplemented by grants from the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust, the Listed Places of Worship scheme and other ongoing fundraising, the church is now able to rebuild the organ and significantly upgrade and enhance its capabilities and range of sounds. The long established organ building firm of J W Walker & Sons has been commissioned to rebuild the organ and has been working on its design and construction since November 2023. They are almost ready to begin dismantling the old organ and installing the new instrument; work in the church is due to begin in August and will likely continue into September.

Together with a group of parishioners, we visited Walkers’ workshop in Devizes in Wiltshire in early July to see the new organ under construction. We were all hugely impressed with the beautiful design and skilful craftsmanship of the new instrument. Each pipe is individually crafted to have the correct note and sound quality. There are 61 pipes for each stop and up to 17 stops, so nearly 1000 pipes in total of many shapes and sizes. The new organ will be somewhat bigger than the old instrument, but will still fit into the space where the old instrument is located. This will give us a versatile and modern organ that will be the envy of many of our neighbouring parishes. It will be a beautiful and fitting legacy for Bob Clow and a wonderful asset for the church and village for many years to come. We hope that the new instrument will provide new opportunities for musical events in the church, as well as providing splendid music for services, weddings and funerals. We also hope it might encourage more people to consider learning to play the organ. If anyone is interested to know more, please get in touch.

Peter Read