Christ Church, Castledawson, Co. Londonderry

Low GGG and AAA pipes had been cut down to BBB & CC# - these were extended and restored to the original intention.

The keyboard which had been fixed in the open position was made retractable again.

The German Flute 4' had been added on a clamp behind the case pipes and the case extended back probably by Telford of Dublin. At some stage (probably 1963) the German Flute was replaced by Dulciana pipes. These were retained as a useful accompaniment stop rather than trying to recreate the missing Flute or scrap the added stop altogether.

The case woodwork was in poor condition and the polish was dead in too many areas to warrant conservation so it was stripped back and French polished from scratch together with replacement of many missing mouldings.

The front pipes had five or more layers of gold paint on top of the original gold leaf. The pipes were taken back to the original gold and completely redone in new gold leaf.

An electric blower which originally sat beside the organ was moved to the vestry behind and a ducted through the wall. Blowing was originally by hand lever and foot pedal but these had long since disappeared.

This chamber organ never appeared to have had a thorough restoration and after nearly 200 years it was badly needing attention. We approached the project from a historic restoration point of view and to conserve all that existed. There had been minor alterations over the years which were deemed beneficial and part of the history of the instrument so these were retained with the exception of the altered compass which was reversed.