St Mary's Church in Fratton to host a festival celebrating restoration of historic pipe organ

The St Mary’s parish choir sings while the scaffolding is up for the Organ Project, St Mary’s Church, Fratton .

The 1889 J.W. Walker & Sons pipe organ had fallen into critical condition before a National Lottery Heritage Fund restoration award in 2020, kick-starting a £64,721 fundraising campaign to save the nationally significant instrument.

Now the pipe organ has been successfully restored, a fortnight of events is planned, with a Heritage Dedication Festival.

The festivities will include education workshops with local schools, Boer War Memorial Talk, and a service of dedication, in which the newly-restored organ will be blessed by the Bishop of Portsmouth, Jonathan Frost.

One of the quirkier events of the Heritage Dedication Festival is a Mo’Jive Tea Dance, taking place at 2pm on July 15, with a traditional Victorian Tea Dance featuring modern jive classes and refreshments.

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The Organ Project will be holding heritage workshops with Arundel Court Primary Academy and Newbridge Junior School.

The church will also be hosting a unique ‘Wind Pipes’ exhibition from the July 14 to 22, featuring a sprawling instrument originally created by artist Sarah Kenchington for the Edinburgh Arts Festival.

The church’s pipe organ will be the centre of a service of dedication on July 16 at 4pm, including an inaugural recital.

Revd Bob White, the vicar of St Mary’s Church, thanked everyone who supported the project and encouraged people to join in with the events to mark the work’s completion.

He said: ‘It has been an amazing journey from November 2020 and we have enjoyed working alongside the team from Nicholsons. We are looking forward to celebrating the completion of the restoration and welcoming everyone to share with us in a great series of diverse events.

‘These reflect the importance of the organ and the gift of music at the heart of our life as a church and the wider community.

‘Thank you to all who have supported this project so far and to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for its grant, which has enabled this project to happen.’

The festival will run from July 11 to 23.

Tickets for events are available from theorganproject.org.