The
organ of St Mary's church, Ponteland, has been in
place for 40 years. It has given good service and
now needs a good clean. The total bill will be
about £10,000 as there are 700 pipes to sort
out.
Please would you
pay for a pipe or two (at £15 a
pipe)?
The organ was
placed in the south transept of St Mary's about 40
years ago and has been properly maintained since
then. Now the time has come for a deep clean. John
Lightbown and Sons, organ builders of Tynemouth,
who care for the instrument, will do the work for
us this autumn. The cleaning will cost £6,900
+ VAT and some work to improve the mechanical
action will cost £1,320 + VAT - so a total of
£9,874 (we'll say £10,000).
The build up of
dust and dirt in the pipe mouths affect the sound,
and can block the smaller pipes completely. The
pipes will all be taken out, cleaned and any damage
repaired. The interior, the structure, of the organ
will be cleaned, repaired and re-polished (with
traditional French button polish - that sounds
rather special).
There are 700
pipes, so that works out - roughly - at £15 a
pipe. Please would you sponsor a pipe (or two, or
ten, or whatever you can afford)?
The organ
accompanies worship in Church. We cannot imagine
Christmas carols without it - almost 2,000 people
worshipped in St Mary's over the Christmas period,
with special services for schools, Northumbria
Police, Newcastle Airport, as well as the ordinary
'public' services. Sunday by Sunday it accompanies
congregation and choir - and we are fortunate to
have a very good choir of 20 people (children and
adults). It plays when children come for baptism
(about 40 this year), when couples come for
marriage (23), and at the end of a person's life as
family and friends gather for their funeral (20
last year). For a Civic Service, Harvest Festivals,
Easter, celebrations and sadness - the organ plays.
We have three excellent organists, and other adults
and young people use the organ for their practice.
It is a good instrument, one to be proud of. We
need to clean and restore it.
The musical life
of our village benefits from the music of the
organ. School orchestras and choirs come for
services and concerts, the St Mary's Singers fill
the church for two concerts a year, we welcome
other choirs and orchestras. The first week of
August this year will see the 14th Bi-annual Summer
Festival of Music, Art and Flowers - part of the
wider life of our village and this part of
Northumberland.
Please help -
send your donation to Maureen Hodson,
Administrator, St Mary's Church Office, Thornhill
Road, Ponteland, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE20 9PZ.
Maureen is in the office 9 am to 12 noon each
weekday, phone 01661 824470. Email
office@pontelandstmary.org.uk. Donations can be
gift aided (registered charity 1134771)
We will be
producing a document listing our donors - a
document we will keep in church for a few years
before transferring it with other parish papers to
the Northumberland Record Office at Woodhorn. If
you would like your name recorded, or the name of
someone in whose memory you are donating, or an
event you are celebrating … please give us the
information.
Thank
you.
St.
Mary's Church Choir 
It
would be lovely to have some new people, so please
come along if you can commit yourself to the hour's
rehearsal on Tuesdays, and to sing at most Choral
Services.
Choir
Director: Hannah Barham
Please talk to
Hannah (Tel: 01661 822140) or e-mail
popsbarham@googlemail if you have any
queries.
Rehearsal: every
Tuesday evening at 7.30p.m.
