I was told about the availability of the Gunton Hall organ through discussions on the Yahoo groups UK Cinema Organs online notice board, about the fates of four local theatre organs that had left or were due to leave the West Country (including the famous ABC Plymouth Compton). My provisional bid for the Gunton organ was accepted, and on 28th October I drove to Lowestoft in Suffolk to have a look at the organ and plan its removal.
The organ was housed in chambers in a purpose-built shed actually on the roof of the Gunton Hall Lakeside Pavilion (Ballroom/Concert hall), and spoke down into the hall through a grille in the ceiling above the stage. Later alterations to the stage area and the addition of a new stained glass ceiling in the Pavilion meant that the organ was somewhat muffled by baffles and the new stage proscenium: This may well have spelt the end of the organ’s useful life in the hall and its fall into disuse.
The management of Gunton Hall said that the organ needed to be removed by the end of 2006 as they were about to undertake another stage rebuild early in the New Year. That meant I had to get a wriggle on, so I hurriedly organised the removal for 1st- 4th December – later dates were not convenient for my team of helpers and in any case, with Christmas events and activities in the hall, it would be virtually impossible to carry out the work later in the month.
We hired a seven and a half tonne truck to transport the dismantled organ and a fork-lift hoist to lower all the parts some 20 feet down off the roof. We also had deliveries of various other equipment and materials we would need for a safe and efficient removal. Work commenced with the stripping down of the console to make it as light as possible for handling, and the heavy blower unit was disassembled and removed to create easier access to remove the rest of the organ through the blower room. Next we built pipe trays and removed and packed away all the smaller pipes using bubblewrap to further protect them. The larger pipes windchests, percussions, trunking and frames followed, and the heavy relay stack on the blower room wall was disconnected, dismantled and removed. All was lowered down off the roof and carefully stacked and secured in the truck as we went.
Finally we removed individually each of the swell shutters. One of the very few snags we encountered was that the shutter frames had been comprehensively nailed into place in the studwork wall with 6 inch nails, presumably when the chambers were being built, and we had quite a job to remove them. Unfortunately, after losing at least 3 hacksaw blades trying to saw through the nails where they were accessible in the narrow gaps between the frame and the studwork, we had to resort to brute force and smashed through the plasterboard to locate the nails and get the frames out.
All this work over 3 days - by the way - was done to the backgound music of a repeating sequence of Christmas Song records coming up from the Pavilion, as the complex was already well into its Christmas mode. I can vouch for everybody involved in the removal that if we heard one more rendition of "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas" or "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire........" we would have gone completely loopy!
With daylight gone on the third and final day, we worked under floodlights to complete the loading up of the truck. Throughout the 3 days of removal we had encountered violent gales and some rain, but by and large the weather was kind to us while we were working outdoors and there were no accidents and no damage to the organ.
Work finished by about 6pm on Sunday 3rd. We made the decision to set off back for the West Country that very evening, as we would otherwise encounter heavy monday morning traffic the next day if we stayed over, and this might mean not getting back in time for the offload team we’d organised at the other end. So with Nigel Williamson driving the truck and myself leading the way in the car (with the Wurlitzer Tibia rank for company) we drove all the way back, arriving home at 2 am on the morning of the 4th December
After a few hours solid kip in our own beds, we drove to Dingle’s Steam Village in Devon where a waiting team of fresh and keen helpers very swiftly but carefully unloaded and stacked the organ parts. The offload was much easier than the loading up: For a start we were under cover as we could back the truck right into the building. Also, we were able to use the truck’s tail lift, and pallets and pallet trolleys to move the parts - even the console was dead easy! Everything was carefully stored on pallets in the area of the museum that has been designated for the chambers when the organ is rebuilt.
We have returned to Dingles regularly to re-arrange stored parts and to bring home bits and pieces for restoration. The New Year saw us set up a very successful display and stall for Dingle's season, and included a "mock up" console combining the ex-Malvern console carcass, surronds manuals pedals and bench, with the ex-Gunton Hall stop sweeps and console lid.
