We’re getting there
With your generous help and the support of various trusts, we have at last started work building the gallery, which will house our much improved organ, a kitchenette and a toilet.

After eight years of fund raising the village of Westleton has raised more than fifty percent of our target. A grant of £47,000 from English Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled us to take the decision to complete the whole project, which will enhance our worship and provide better facilities for concerts and other events held in the church, which already benefit from the magnificent acoustics of our building.

The organ before rebuilding

Building the Gallery and Screen: installing the kitchen and toilet
The organ, which had stood against the west wall on the north side of the church since 1922, was well overdue for major repairs. It was removed to storage in 2008, and exploratory work including an archaeological investigation was carried out at the west end of the building. Formal permission for the new works was granted in 2010.

Wm C Reade of Aldeburgh Ltd. were contracted to carry out the building works. The builders moved on site in January 2011. Work is now in progress to construct the gallery and associated timberwork. Drains are being dug, and the kitchen and toilet will be installed in due course.

Building the Organ
The frame for the organ will be erected once the floor of the gallery is in place. The organ case will be attached to it. Meanwhile the pipework is being cleaned, and if necessary repaired, ready for installation, and the soundboards on which the pipes stand are being modified.

The rebuilt organ will consist mostly of early and mid-nineteenth century pipework. This is pipework from the former Westleton instrument which is to be incorporated as a third manual with the former two manual organ built by Bishop & Son for St. Mary-the-Less in Cambridge in 1978 using an instrument built by James Corps of Norwich for the church at Necton in Norfolk in 1850; now recognised as a rare surviving example of an instrument of the English Classical period of organ building.
The organ is being built by Peter Bumstead of Ipswich. It will be an instrument of three manuals, divided between a main case and a chair case situated on the front of the new west gallery. A full Pedal department developed almost entirely from the rest of the Westleton pipework will be situated in the tower arch behind the main case and will underpin the much sort after mid-nineteenth century sound of the rest of the instrument.

The Design for the Gallery and Organ Case
The design of the gallery and screen is by the respected architect Brian Haward, ARIBA. It is conceived as being in harmony with the building as a whole, and integrates the façade of the gallery and screen with the organ case specially designed for the instrument by the organ builder Peter Bumstead. The carved, scalloped shapes of the pipe shades of the organ case give a vibrancy, which expresses the fine singing tone of the early nineteenth century pipework.

proposed organ case and gallery

Here’s where you can help
We remain overwhelmed by peoples’ response to our project but it looks likely that we will have a shortfall in the region of £25,000, covered at present by borrowing from other sources. But these will have to be repaid by future fund raising activities; it is hoped that contributions may continue to come in as people begin to appreciate the valuable addition to our heritage that is being achieved. We would so appreciate your help.

GALLERY OF PICTURES
These are the latest views of progress as at March 2011
Keep watching for new images