WORK is now underway on a major refurbishment of the organ at Fairplace Church in Okehampton — at a cost of about £20,000. The work is being undertaken by Lance Foy, Organ Builders, of Truro, Cornwall and is expected to be completed in May. The original organ was installed in 1950 in the East Street Methodist Church in Okehampton — where the Chantry now stands — and was moved to Fairplace in 1964 when the two Methodist churches amalgamated. John Holland, an organist at the church, told the Times: 'Some additions made in 1985 were a great improvement to the original but have not always been reliable or tonally successful. 'The refurbishment hopes to correct some of these problems as well as to do a complete re-voicing of pipe work. 'There is much work to be done within the rear organ chamber. 'Since the recent rebuilding of the church in 1999 we no longer need a walkway through the back of the organ so that this space can now be used for the organ itself. 'At least two ranks of very large pipes must be moved to the rear wall of the chamber before access can be gained to the original. 'This is necessary in order to make future tuning and maintenance safe and indeed possible.' Mr Holland said the small shelf of pipes in view on the side in the sanctuary had been removed and replaced with larger ones about eight feet tall. 'The mechanical and pneumatic mechanisms will all be renovated or replaced and a new solid state electrical system will carry signals to the ranks of pipes at the rear. 'A new trumpet stop of about 60 pipes will be installed which add a new dimension,' he said. Mr Holland said the work being done would be a tremendous improvement and the church hoped that it would keep the organ playing well into the future. Although most of the costs of the works have been raised the church is still short of the target and it is holding a number of public events to boost the funds.
