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The organ in Banbury St. Mary’s has undergone many changes during the past 250 years. Originally a tracker, the organ has been enlarged and improved, with the latest work undertaken by Hill Norman & Beard in 1935. This involved fitting a pneumatic action which hooked up to the original tracker soundboards, and installing a quite original console with push on, and push off drawstops.
Following re-ordering of the building in 2003/4, a low level efficient heating system came into operation. Although the organ has a humidifier, the timber and tube rails of the pneumatic actions shrunk due to low humidity, and the reliability of the organ was compromised. During times of lengthy heating the organ would lose notes as pneumatic signals leaked away, and cyphers occurred as wind exhausted through loose tube rails. The only way to restore reliability was to change the action to electro-pneumatic.
This involved fitting a Solid State Processor System to handle all keying and piston selections.
New drawstop solenoids were fitted at the console, and these were installed in two banks to try and retain the look of the console, and contacts were fitted to all keys and pedals.
The Solid State Capture System allowed us to add on a sequencer, general pistons and extra reversible pistons to aid the organist.
Lever arm magnets were fitted to the under actions of the Swell, Great and Choir soundboards, and new chests were installed to handle the Pedal and Drawstop actions.
The organ is now reliable and greatly improved. The response time from playing a key to the note sounding is instant, and with the extra pistons and 20 levels of memory, the organ is now easier to play with complete flexibility.
The Solid State System will also allow a Record facility to be added in the future, complete with MIDI link to enable a laptop to play the organ.
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