Organ in St Guthlac's, Branston

Image: © J.Hannan-Briggs Taken: 12 Aug 2012

The organ was built by Hugh Russell of London in 1794 for St Clements Church, Lever St, Manchester. That church was abandoned in 1876. James Murray lived near Manchester and got Wadsworth, a Manchester organ builder, to bring it to Branston in 1879. Unfortunately its original case was not brought with it. It has now been re-sited on a western gallery, composed of part of a screen from St Mary’s Church, Lambeth, in London. A new case has been designed as near as possible to the probably original case, the work being carried out by local craftsmen. The 2 manual organ is one of the most important surviving organs in England from the 18th century. During the years of its restoration, two working organ conferences were held around it, and interest shown from all over the country. The finance was obtained from private sources outside the parish. These sources are only available for work for organs, and did not detract from the £80,000, which had to be raised to restore the church. Peter Horne of Nottingham is the organist and the official Curator and Custodian of the organ. The clock is from the Isle of Wight and was wrong at the time!

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