A Tudor Organ-Case at Appleby-in-Westmorland

Summary

When the town organ in the parish church of Appleby-in-Westmorland was damaged by flooding and had to be dismantled for repair and restoration, it was found that the pipes and stops of the Great Organ were practically contemporary, and must date from the instrument's existence in Carlisle Cathedral before its transference to Appleby in 1683. Certain unusual features in the flats were found to have a parallel in a Sienese organ of 1510 or thereabouts, and consideration of this latter instrument showed that a series of carved open-work panels, now incorporated in other fittings in the church, had been part of the original organ-case, a certain asymmetry in the topmost panel being designed to correspond with the irregular centring of the appropriate bay in the quire at Carlisle. Certain heraldic evidence in the ornamentation points to a date between 1542 and 1547, and the present form of the organ was influenced by its transfer to Appleby in 1683—quite possibly under the supervision of the famous ‘Father’ Smith—and its eventual erection under distinguished patronage in 1722.