£1.8m project to restore Norwich Cathedral organ nears completion

  • Watch Natalie Gray's report

A £1.8m project to rebuild Norwich Cathedral's Victorian organ has reached its final stages.

Nearly 6,000 pipes - the smallest about the size of a pencil, the largest 32 feet long - were removed a year ago to be re-gilded and are now being retuned by experts before being returned.

Andrew Fiddes, an associate voicer at Harrison & Harrison, is one of the men entrusted with the task, and described the painstaking process it involves.

He said: "One of us gets inside the organ, making tiny adjustments to all the pipes - making them louder, softer, checking the speech to make sure the organ is as close to perfect as is humanly possible."

Andrew Fiddes tuning the organ at Norwich Cathedral Credit: ITV Anglia

The instrument at Norwich Cathedral is the fourth largest organ in Britain after Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St Paul's.

Ashley Grote, the master of music at Norwich Cathedral explained why the city has such an impressive instrument.

He said: "A Norwich-based organ-building firm, Norman and Beard, were very famous.

"In their heyday they were producing a huge number of instruments that went all around the world and this, as a Norwich organ builder, was really their flagship instrument."

The show pipes have been re-gilded along with a crown and star that adorn the organ's exterior.

The last time any major work was carried out was in the 1940s, after a fire damaged the organ in 1938.

This time, the project to restore it has has been funded by the They Shall Laugh and Sing Music Appeal, is expected to be finished by early July.

The work has involved removing, re-gilding and retuning some 6,000 pipes. Credit: ITV News Anglia

Despite the work being painstaking, Mr Fiddes said he was feeling sad as the project neared its end.

He said: "When we pack our tool bags for the last time it's going to be quite an emotional thing, really.

"We've poured ourselves into the organ and when we walk away on the last day really we're leaving part of ourselves behind."

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