Clerestory windows

David Sear sent me some pictures of the glass from the windows and the stonework. He says:  here you will see the poor repairs that at some time past have been carried out on the clerestory glazing, also a close up of the masonry works carried out to the easternmost window of the north side

So those tadpoles did survive!

This little chap met me on the doorstep when I arrived home from the PCC tonight

Work continues on the clerestory windows

Sunday services and cream teas were business as usual in spite of scaffolding in the Church – well nearly!  The volunteer cleaning team did a fantastic job on Saturday so that the licensing of our new Curate and the renewal of marriage vows (after 60 years) went ahead.

The glazing contractors arrived today and started removing the windows. I hope to have some pictures of the windows themselves in a day or so.

David Sear of the Lincolnshire Stained Glass Studios has a transparent business card – rather appropriate!

Scaffolding arrives!

Work has already started on repairing the clerestory windows at St Peter & St Paul but today when we were having our first site meeting, the scaffolding was being put up in the nave. The stonemasons have started repairing the stonework around the outside of the windows. The scaffolding inside the Church, which will be a complete platform below the clerestory, it primarily to allow the window contractors to remove all the windows – this they plan to start on Monday. The windows will be taken to the workshops and re-leaded.

Autumn at Little Hampden

A quick walk round the village yesterday. Don still harvesting after a few wet weeks. Blackberries ripe and some of the trees just turning. We'll be lighting fires soon! I also found an enormous puff ball – must have been a foot across (300mm) Soon after spotting this, I met Mark with his knife. He was going to cut off some of this fungus and have it for supper. I offered to pop in later to check that he wasn't in a coma but Mark confidently declined.

Zone Plus - pictures

Another great day!

Flower Festival day 2 and Zone Plus day 1

The second day of the Flower Festival – Monday – was a great success. Lots of visitors from the village and further afield and everyone seemed to like the new organ. We had a visit from the walkers on the Parish Plod who had lunch with us (and made generous donations later in the day)

More pictures in a few days

Zone Plus

Another two days of fun activities for youngsters – this time not at Church because the clerestory window project is starting. Today we had Team Fun from the Green Park centre and cooking. There was also a swimming session in the school pool and the Dirt Fox radio-controlled trucks had a good outing, too.

Ian Macdonald from the diocese visited today to present the grant  from the Youth Evangelism Fund that Zone Plus has been awarded. Ian presented the 'cheque' to Lucy who applied on our behalf earlier in the year. Lucy and her friends have been very active in the organisation of the summer Zone Plus.

Flower festival and Organ Dedication

The first day of the Flower Festival was a great success in spite of one heavy shower and some strong winds that blew down one of the gazebos. The festival was well supported and we're hoping for more visitors tomorrow – particularly as the forecast is better.

The Church was full – with several people standing – for the dedication.

More tomorrow.

A week on the canals – and preparation for the Flower Festival

We've been on the canals with the grandchildren for the last week – hence no blogs. On Sunday we had all four – a bit traumatic but no accidents.

For the rest of the week we just had two. Great fun in spite of rather damp weather towards the end.

Quotes of the week: Alfie (3) when looking at three ducks on the water but no boats around “why is there no-one to feed them?” Jack (6) when we had moored  “Can I go offboard now please?”

But it's back to a busy weekend. We had a wedding at Little Hampden today – and the first serious use of the new organ. Needless to say, it performed perfectly.  We've got a Flower Festival on Sunday and Monday to celebrate the arrival of the organ – and to help to pay for it. Geoff helped me make shelves for the sloping windows and preparation started today with Mary and Juliet doing their arrangements. More over the weekend.

 

The organ installation is complete

John Budgen completed the installation today – in spite of visits by a number of organists and parishioners. The verdict from all these seems to be very positive and I think John was pleased that so many people looked in and were obviously excited about the new organ. So we seem to be all set for the wedding on 27th August and the dedication on Sunday evening, 29th.

History of the organ

John left a note to be put inside the organ – I think this is traditional for organ builders.

This little organ served for many years in the church at Charlton Musgrove, near Wincanton, a long narrow building; it stood in a small transept near the chancel. In those days it had two 8ft stops, open diapason and salicional, both poorly voiced. When in 2008 it was superseded by an electronic instrument, we rescued it and stood it in the English Organ School at Milborne Port. Liam Cartwright, a pupil of Margaret Phillips, noticed it and brought about its purchase for Little Hampden church.

John Budgen exchanged the pipework for a Gedact and Principal, which he had done with two similar Casson organs quite successfully. In this instance, the channels of the soundboard are routered out and very shallow (not the full depth suggestee by the top and bottom veneers). The result is a tendency to 'rob' and makes for difficult tuning, but it is at least more tuneful than when it had two 8fts, and. Hopefully, an improvement on the 'keyboard' in use up till now.

The original builder Thomas Casson is a the father of Lewis Casson, the actor and husband of Sybil Thorndyke. Sir Hugh Casson was Lewis Casson's nephew.


I hope this is the start if a new phase for this organ, bringing beautiful music to the worship at Little Hampden.

Organ installation continues

John Budgen continues to install the Little Hampden Church Organ – interrupted periodically by visitors. I heard it played this afternoon – not all the pipes were installed but it sounded good to me.



Here are some more pictures of the organ arriving and being installed.

John and I have been having interesting discussions about organ pipes: I can remember some of the basic physics, but not the equations. The sound is made by a standing wave within the pipe which depends on the length of the pipe between the mouth (the slit at the bottom) and the end. Some of the pipes are open-ended (the metal ones n our organ) and some have plugs at the end so are closed (the wooden ones). The closed pipes resonate at half the frequency (one octave lower) than an open pipe of the same length. Also, according to Wikipedia, an open pipe produces odd- and even-numbered harmonics whereas a closed or stopped pipe produces only odd-numbered harmonics.

The pipes are tuned by slightly altering their length. You can see the sleeves on the metal pipes in the picture below. Sliding these up and down change the length – and so the pitch – slightly. The stopped wooden pipes have a movable stopper which can lengthen or shorten the resonant chamber thus altering the pitch. We did discuss how the different tones are made – but this got beyond my physics.

The organ arrives

First few pictures of the new Little Hampden organ which we transported from Warminster today. John Budgen is installing it over the next few days.