Organ Restoration Appeal
An appeal fund has been launched to raise the funds needed to enable a complete restoration of the organ to be undertaken. The organ is of considerable historical significance and was awarded Grade II listed status by the British Institute of Organ Studies in June 2008 under its Historic Organs Certificate Scheme.
The organ dates from the time of completion of the church itself in 1879. The builder was John Nicholson of Worcester, whose father first established the organ building business in Rochdale. John Nicholson left Lancashire in 1840 to set up business in Worcester, and the next time he returned to Lancashire to work was in 1861 when he was responsible for building the organ in Manchester Cathedral. This organ is still in use today.
There is no formal published work on John Nicholson but his notebooks and handwritten lists were published in the late 1880’s and Scorton St. Peter appears as having been built in 1879. There is little evidence of any other work by this builder in the area. The organ is therefore regarded as being historically important. The casework of the organ is of conservative design, typical of Nicholson, but the superstructure itself was designed by the well known Lancaster architects, Paley and Austin who designed the church.
The organ has been altered little since 1879, and is now in need of a thorough and conservative restoration to return it to original condition. A programme of restoration was done in 1973 but this was mainly concerned with the console and tracker actions. The main threat to the continuing use of the organ comes from the failure of the reservoir leatherwork and full restoration has been recommended.
An appeal fund has been established to raise the estimated £45,000 needed to complete the full restoration and to provide the opportunity of learning more and appreciating the value of our heritage.