{"id":229,"date":"2025-11-05T16:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists-org-uk.stacktemp.com\/?page_id=229"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:15:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:15:46","slug":"review-visits-to-whitehaven-and-st-bees-20-april-2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/review-visits-to-whitehaven-and-st-bees-20-april-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Review : Visits to Whitehaven and St. Bees : 20 April 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On Saturday 20th April, five members met at St. James\u2019 Church, Whitehaven. The organ was built in 1909 by Norman and Beard, and restored by Mander in 2011. Along with St. Bees Priory and St. Nicholas\u2019 Whitehaven (which was destroyed by fire in 1971), it is one of the \u201cThree Graces\u201d of West Cumbria, designed by Lt-Col. George Dixon. Further restoration work has been completed since our last visit and the action was noticeably quieter than before. Sadly, a few notes were not working and the console still looks as if it could do with a good clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. James’, Whitehaven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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David Shingler at St. James’, Whitehaven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At around 3 pm we travelled to St. Bees Priory where members of the church had prepared refreshments and cakes. A number of visitors from Canada were eagerly waiting to hear the organ, having expressed interest and been told of our imminent arrival. The organ was built in 1899 by \u201cFather\u201d Henry Willis, the last major instrument that he worked on personally, and the first parish church organ to feature \u201cprogrammable\u201d pistons. From 1906 onwards, various modifications were made by Harrison & Harrison, including the addition of the 32\u201d reed, which is still the only one to be found in Cumbria. It is a while since our last visit and pleasing to find the organ remains in reasonable order despite no major work for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Bees Priory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thanks are due to Nigel Donaldson for planning the two visits and for sorting out access arrangements in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Pipe Organ Register Links<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. James, Whitehaven<\/a>
St. Mary & St. Bega, St Bees<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday 20th April, five members met at St. James\u2019 Church, Whitehaven. The organ was built in 1909 by Norman and Beard, and restored by Mander in 2011. Along with St. Bees Priory and St. Nicholas\u2019 Whitehaven (which was destroyed by fire in 1971), it is one of the \u201cThree Graces\u201d of West Cumbria, designed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-229","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/229\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumbrianorganists.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}