Blog

The blog shows a record of our past and current work. Please click on the post for the full details
  • David Butterworth playing at Martin’s celebration on February 20th

    We are very grateful to the many people who came to the celebration of Martin’s life and works last Saturday, to the three organists, Chris Farr, Tim Roberts and David Butterworth, and to John Bamford who helped us to arrange the event at St Botolph’s and provided us with an excellent conclusion to our event.

  • Los Chicos, ten years ago at St Botolph Aldgate

    A photo of Martin, Dominic (not concentrating as usual), Tim McEwen, Sergio del Campo Olaso and Edward, taking their lunch on the steps of St Botolph Aldgate during the installation of the restored organ ten years ago.

  • Guillaume begins the restoration of the bellows from Great Tew

    Guillaume Zellner is nestling neatly inside the reservoir of the bellows from the ca1865 Henry Williams organ from Great Tew in Oxfordshire, and beginning to remove the original leather. In the background is another Victorian bellows, from the 1864 Bevington organ from Erddig House near Wrexham, restored by Nick Hagen

  • Film portrait of Martin Goetze

    Our Chilean friend and colleague Jose Manuel Izquierdo Konig has sent us a compilation of scenes taken from short television films made by his friends Pepe Torres and Francisco Anderson, as a tribute to Martin. Below is a link to the tribute which is on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BgdVyOYk3Q This is the link to the films …

  • Shaun Ward plays Benjamin Cosyn on the St Teilo Organ currently at St Laurence Ludlow

    The St Teilo Tudor organ was made for the Bangor University research project http://www.experienceofworship.org.uk. It was originally housed in the reconstructed mediaeval church of St Teilo at the Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagans near Cardiff, but is now to be seen and heard at St Laurence Ludlow. You can hear the director of …

  • Martin’s celebration on Saturday 20th February 2016

    We would like to remind you of the celebration of his life and works on February 20th 2016 at 3.00pm at St Botolph Aldgate Tim Roberts will play music by John Worgan, who was organist at St Botolphs and a musician famous in his day. He will bring his new CD of the organ works …

  • A visit by National Trust volunteers from Erddig House

    On January 13th we were visited by volunteers from Erddig House, near Wrexham now run by the National Trust. The organ was built for Philip Yorke in 1864 by Henry Bevington a small two manual and pedal chamber organ which still has its dumb organist, a barrel with six tunes.

  • Edward repairing Great Tew ground frame

    Edward Bennett is seen repairing the pedal rollers on the ground frame of the least successful part of a very nicely and solidly made organ by Henry Williams of Cheltenham from the late 1860s. Making the pedal action work properly is one of the main objects of the restoration.

  • The front pipes from the Bevington Organ at Erddig near Wrexham

    As well as this ribbed pattern, the front pipes have a stencilled pattern, at least, that is what they look like. An examination of the front pipes shows that the outlines are painted freehand, over areas of gilding. The effect is delightful.

  • Joseph Marsden restoring the front pipes from the Bevington Organ at Erddig near Wrexham

    We are currently restoring the 1864 Bevington organ made for Philip Yorke at Erddig near Wrexham in Wales. Erddig is a National Trust house, famous for the consideration which the family showed for their servants and workers, with series of portraits and little verses of poetry for each. The Bevington organ stands in the entrance …

  • Christopher Stembridge plays at Trinity College Cambridge on January 24th 2016

    Our friend Christopher Stembridge will be playing a concert on the organ at Trinity College Cambridge at 5.40pm on January 24th. He will be playing Gabrieli, Satie, Byrd, Frescobaldi, Hassler and JSBach. The picture shows Chris playing our Italian chamber organ in the Laigh Room at St Cecilia’s Hall in Edinburgh in 2010, where the …

  • Chris Davies’s first day at G & G

    On January 4th our team was joined by Chris Davies, a friend of Joseph Marsden. Under Joseph’s trained eye, Chris will learn all the different elements of organ building and restoration, through the whole workshop. Chris is also a tuba player with Armthorpe Elmfield Brass Band. Chris has worked as a car mechanic, specialising in …

  • Dominic’s Christmas Trees

    Every year I feel the urgent need to contribute to our family Christmas by making some new decoration, sometimes inspired by other people’s ideas, sometimes inspired by off-cuts in the machine room. These Christmas trees were made of strips of mahogany and birch, off-cuts from tea trays made for my daughters. You can arrange the …

  • Dominic’s Bauhaus Nativity Scene

    My parish church, St Cuthbert’s in Wells Somerset, has an exhibition of upwards of 200 nativity scenes every year. They are of every shape and size, come from all over the world, are made of just about every material. They are based on the collection of Sue Harding, a stalwart soprano in our choir. I …

  • Snetzler name plate for Hindle’s organ

    Here is the name plate from Hindle’s Snetzler organ

  • Xmas Card 2015

    JOHN SNETZLER BUREAU ORGAN 1754 This organ was bought by David Hindle in 2006 from the Caldecott Community at Mersham-le-Hatch. It was given to them by Captain Lane, in whose house Andrew Freeman had photographed it in 1944. It had been extended with a pedal free reed by C.R.Oliver of Plymouth in 1975. In about …

  • Boxford Berkshire Barrel Organ Pinning

    Stuart Dobbs corrects the pinning of one of the five barrels on the ca1810 anon organ, for “The Portuguese Hymn” aka “Come All ye Faithful”

  • Welbeck open studios and Christmas market November 27th – 29th

    Last weekend the workshop was open to the public as part of the Harley Foundation’s Open Studios and Christmas Market. We were visited by Jonathan and Sharon Edwardes, director of music and organist at Pilning church near Bristol, whose William Allen chamber organ we have just restored. Also Jonathan’s father Roy who was organist at …

  • Thomas Parker’s Enharmonic Organ in ca1900

    It is unusual to see an owner or player alongside their organ, especially if it is a chamber organ. Here is a John Collier painting of Morforwyn Fanshawe, daughter of Sir George Lloyd Verney, standing in front of Thomas Parker’s enharmonic organ in about 1900, presumably at her father’s house at Clochfaen near Llangurig in …

  • Welbeck Singers in 1997

    For a long time a small choir called the Welbeck Singers sang weekly in our workshop, and performed three or four times a year, usually early music, sometimes church or cathedral services. Here (clockwise) are Liz New, Phyllis Palmer, Doreen Carruthers, Dominic Gwynn, Marcus Stahl, Martin Goetze eagerly awaiting the downbeat from Edward Bennett. With …

  • Celebration of Life and Works of Martin Goetze

    Martin Goetze: Celebration of his Life and Works On February 20th 2016 at 3.00pm at St Botolph Aldgate There will be a celebration of the life and works of Martin Goetze, our dear partner and colleague, in words and music, but mostly music. Tim Roberts will play music by John Worgan, who was organist at …

  • Nick turning a column

    Nick turning the column for a late medieval choir lectern for John Harper at Birmingham University.

  • Dominic Gwynn coning in the toes

    Dominic Gwynn coning in the toes on new pipework for Michael Taylor’s chamber organ

  • Paper extracted from the bellows

    Paper extracted from the bellows of the JC Bishop organ at Sarsden House, Oxfordshire – Charles Coleman was presumably related to Albert Coleman who was in partnership with TR Willis 1855-72, and JK Andrews went into partnership with James Forster and settled in Hull in 1843.

  • Joseph making a blowing pedal

    Joseph making a blowing pedal for the late 18th century chamber organ at St Cecilia’s Hall, Russell Collection, Edinburgh which is being rebuilt at the moment.

  • A photographer visits

    On 19th October Ben Boswell took portraits of all the organ builders at work, part of a dossier of portraits of all the craftspeople at the Harley Foundation, the charitable organization which subsidises our workshops http://www.harleygallery.co.uk/harley-studios/ and Ben’s contact is www.benboswell.co.uk

  • Abigail Burns Holes

    Restoring a ca1840 J.C.Bishop organ Sarsden parish church in Oxfordshire: the wind chest was full of slits, so Abigail Balfour has filled the splits with strips of mahogany and lined the channels with cotton tape, and is here seen burning the holes through the tape …

  • The Martin Goetze Memorial Fund

    This fund has been set up to offer an annual award to a promising trainee or young organ builder. Generous donations have totalled £1,237.10 so far. Some people have wanted to contact Martin’s partner, Margaret Hamilton (maggshami@hotmail.co.uk ) who initiated this fund. Cheques made out to ‘ Martin Goetze Memorial Fund’ may be sent to …

  • Martin’s Memorial Service

    Thanks to all of you who came to Martin’s Memorial Service at St Anne’s Worksop last Thursday (September 24th), especially those who came a long way, and to all those who would have liked to have come and couldn’t. It was a celebration of a life well-lived. And thanks too for the many expressions of …

  • Tim, Hannah and Myles visit Welbeck

    A visit on Tuesday September 2nd from Tim McEwen who worked with us from 1999 to 2008, and Hannah and Myles. They are about to move from Fort Wayne Indiana to Cincinnati Ohio US. Tim works on his own projects and looks after local organs, as well as looking after Myles.