Refurbishing Winchester Cathedral’s organ

A beautiful city in the south of England, Winchester, with its bustling shopping streets, and quirky open air events, is probably best known for its eleventh century cathedral. For nearly a thousand years, people have come to seek inspiration there, and today, it welcomes 300,000 visitors a year to share in worship, explore its heritage, and attend many events.
The cathedral boasts glorious church architecture, priceless treasures, and great works of art. Like many of England’s cathedrals, it is ancient and steeped in history, yet it is also a modern organisation seeking to make an important spiritual, social, and cultural contribution as it serves the local community. “The cathedral is at the heart of the community,” says Zoë Seenan, Winchester Cathedral’s director of development. “It’s been here a thousand years, and lots has changed in that time. But what hasn’t changed is the importance of the cathedral to the community.”
The cathedral helps foster strong community links through worship and welcome activities, often enriched by glorious choral music. Right at the heart of this, is the Cathedral’s organ, which is made up of 5,500 pipes, that was first installed in 1854. The organ is the beating heart of the Cathedral, in daily use for worship, recitals and concerts, and can be heard the world over in broadcasts and recordings.
However, the organ has not been correctly serviced since 1988, and it has been in constant use every day. The cathedral hires three full time organists and there are often three organ-playing recitals daily. “We are getting to the stage where the organ is starting to be a little bit unreliable,” says Andrew Lumsdon, director of music. This is why, throughout 2023, most of the organ will be dismantled in order to clean, repair, and strengthen it, and it will also be tuned and regulated. This is an enormous task. The larger pipes will be cleaned in the cathedral and the rest of the pipes will be dismantled and cleaned away from the site. It will take nine months and a whole team working on it to entirely refurbish the organ.
In recent years, even more people have been visiting the cathedral and using it for many different reasons, including spiritual, social, and community reasons. “We know how important the cathedral is for people,” says Zoë. “It’s our duty to look after it for future generations.”
Joshua Stephens is one of three full time organists hired to play regularly at Winchester Cathedral. “The music is there, it catches people at really important moments, and because of that, music has the fundamental power to change lives,” he says. “When people come in here, to this wonderful space, this amazing building, and they hear this music, perhaps for the first time - perhaps for the only time - and it hits them; and that’s really special; that’s really important for us to be part of.”
Oak Foundation’s Special Interest Programme (SIP) is supporting the Winchester Cathedral to undertake this refurbishment. This will help keep the cathedral as the beating heart of Winchester for many decades to come. To find out more about SIP, click here. To find out more about Winchester Cathedral, click here.