ST MARY THE VIRGIN, GAMLINGAY

• The Church Introduction
• Tour of the church
• Inside the church
• Services

THE ORGAN

The organ in the church dates from 1886. Whilst of moderate size, the organ has several stops of outstanding quality. The choice when it was purchased having been for quality rather than quantity.

The case is of oak and predates the organ, indicating that an earlier screen was built into the case work. All the metal pipes are of `Spotted metal', an expensive metal for those times.

The organ was built by Hill and Son, who started as Elliot and Hill in the mid 1820s, became Hill and Co in 1846 and Hill and Son in 1857.

The organ one manual and pedal organ with the following stops.

MANUAL
Open Diapason	8 feet
Dulcima	8 feet
Gedact	8 feet
Principal	4 feet
Wald Flute	4 feet
Twelfth	3 feet
Fifteenth	2 feet
Gamba	8 feet
PEDAL
Bourdon	16 feet
Pedal to manual coupler

The Gamba has been a substitution, as the slide was originally pierced for a trumpet. A trumpet of this period of Hill's work has been obtained and is awaiting the funds to put it in.

The instrument was clearly a `trade' organ, as the firm made many to this specification at the time, and it is also easy to see how it was developed into a two manual instrument for churches needing a more sophisticated organ.

Roger Henthorne