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As I said earlier, the Organ had been well-maintained by the cinema manager and its tuner and was in a reasonably good playing condition at the time of sale.  Although this was so, an organ needs to have some work done when re-installed at a new locale.  However, essentially the Theatre Organ was re-installed As Was and, unfortunately, no remedial work was done on it.

The Theatre Organ following installation at the Northampton Grammar School

Whilst in the cinema, the Console was painted cream, with a green colour used to pick out the raised horizontal bars and edging.  To be honest, these colours did not blend well and were not attractive.  This probably influenced the decision to re-clad the Console in a mahogany veneer, although much duller, but more in keeping with the décor of The Hall.  (I always thought that the mahogany veneer gave the Console a rather spartan look!)

Following the Organ’s installation at the School, a new and matching mahogany organ bench was made and donated by a parent.  The original cream-painted bench found its way to the Caretaker, who used it to stand on to cut his hedges!

This is not quite the end of the story of the bench: the new bench was prone to warping and paid frequent visits to the woodwork shop for adjustment.  During these periods, the original would re-appear!  It may still be lurking in the depths of the school basement – who knows?   Perhaps one day I may return to my old school to enquire if it is still there.

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Oftentimes when such an instrument is re-located to a new home, the various parts would have been cleaned, re-voiced and regulated to ensure that all the pipes spoke clearly.  Although the Organ sounded reasonably well, no doubt, it It could have sounded much better.  During the duration of the Organ’s life at the school, the authorities were only to pay for occasional tuning and many wiring/mechanical faults were simply left without repair.  As a result, the Organ suffered from the presence of Dud Notes and others things that no longer worked.

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The re-installation of the erstwhile Forum Coventry Conacher Theatre Organ was undertaken by two or three of the teachers with the assistance of several of the pupils.  Unfortunately, I was not involved in the process.  To help pay for incidentals required, the school allowed an additional £100 to complete the job.

Some of the Organ’s Pipes following their installation at the school

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At the Forum Cinema Coventry, The Conacher Theatre Organ was installed in two chambers beneath the stage.  These were fairly close together and free from temperature variation caused by external weather conditions.  Upon its removal Northampton, the Organ remained divided as before, although the chambers were built on either side of the stage at first-floor level and were some distance apart.  Looking towards the stage:

• the Left-Hand (Solo) Chamber contained Tuba, Trumpet, Vox Humana and Tibia Clausa, plus the majority of the traps and percussions; and
• the Right-Hand (Accompaniment) Chamber housed Diapason, Violin, Celeste and Flute plus the Chrysoglott/Vibraphone.
• The Relays were located at the rear of the Right-Hand Chamber.

The Accompaniment Chamber was shaded from direct sunlight by part of the original school building and usually remained at a constant temperature.  However, the Solo Chamber was not as fortunate and was frequently bathed in sunlight.

Owing to poor design, the roof of the New Hall was of thin metal, with no insulation.  It also abutted the original school building with glass panels to allow light in.  The panels also extended above the Solo Chamber, so that on really hot days, the Tibia and Reeds were, in effect, encased in a greenhouse. The excess heat also caused problems with the wind trunking and the actual windchests, as any warping tended to result in wind leaks, making the Organ much noisier and affecting the responsiveness of the action.

On one occasion, while a meeting organised by The Cinema Organ Society (COS) was being held, we measured a temperature difference of almost thirty degrees between the Chambers.  The effect of this was to send the reeds (Tuba, Trumpet, Vox) screaming out of tune, as the heat forced them to be several tones sharper.  As a Reed Pipe is constructed of several types of metal, it does not return to tune as it cools, and so the whole rank has to be re-tuned from scratch. Effectively this ruined the afternoon’s programme and was, I am sure, the key reason why the ex-Forum Conacher Organ was regarded as somewhat of a failure by visiting organists  during its time at the school.

It would be fair to say that although the Organ mis-behaved on a number of such occasions, it remained fairly good-natured for much of its day-to-day duties when accompanying the hymns for Morning Assembly or when providing a practice facility for a number of students who were being taught to play by the Music staff.

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The Theatre Organ had originally been installed at the Forum Cinema Coventry with an accompanying Grand Piano.  The Grand Piano had been made by Marshall & Rose and was included in the sale of the Organ to the school.

The Theatre Organ with accompanying Grand Piano at the School

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The picture is of an Assembly and is reproduced from the school magazine, The Northamptonian;
the arrow points to the Organ Console on the stage

The New Hall was not the greatest success, in my opinion. I regarded the architectural style as 1960s Bus Station at best! The flat roof leaked and caused major problems of temperature difference between the Organ Chambers.  It also doubled as a Dining Hall. As this photograph of a Morning Assembly shows, the stage and Organ Console were actually to the left of the body of pupils. The Headmaster and Senior Staff may be seen sitting on a removable platform – effectively a second stage – which had been installed as it was necessary to seat the entire First Form (around 150 pupils) on the Main Stage in order to accommodate everyone.  Had the building been better-designed, and a little larger so that everyone could be accommodated FACING the stage, I think it possible the building could have survived, and the Organ with it.

In 2006 the decision was taken both to replace the New Hall with a brand-new building and to discard the Organ.  At this time, the School also had built a new Music and Drama facility where all productions are now staged.

The Conacher Theatre Organ became yet another victim of circumstance, as it was thought that the then-Headmaster had liked it and wanted to have it installed in this new building, however, since he had moved on to pastures new, he was not present to offer any objections.  As a result, the Organ also headed off to pastures new!

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Michael Nicholas FRCO, Senior Music Master
This photograph is reproduced from The Independent, a local magazine
that did a feature on the school in the late 1960’s

The Organ was played each morning at Assembly by Mr. Michael Nicholas, Senior Music Master and the Head of Music.  Each morning, it was his custom to improvise a piece of music while we waited for the Head Master to enter and take his place on the stage.  He would then accompany the hymn.  He was an excellent organist and has had an illustrious career including  Organist and Master of Choristers at Norwich Cathedral (1974-1991) and Chief Executive of the Royal College of Organists (RCO).  

Mr. Nicholas was not an admirer of the Theatre Organ and never made use of the Tibia or Vox ranks.  Despite this, I enjoyed his playing, and often, it made for an inspiring start to the day.

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I became involved with the maintenance of the Organ when I was about 15 years of age.  I used to spend hours working on it including tracing faults, re-wiring, putting in replacement magnets and so on.  My parents were never sure when I’d get home from school!

I remember that at one time I even managed to track down the last spare magnets from the Conacher Theatre Organ once installed at the Regal/Odeon Theatre Wimbledon, which had been removed by a Northampton organ builder.  He gave me a couple of boxes of the magnets, which were all, sadly, that remained of this huge organ (i.e. 4-manuals, 22 ranks).

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Programme of a School Concert Sponsored by the Cinema Organ Society (COS)

Armsbee Bancroft at The School Conacher Theatre Organ playing a section of tunes by Ivor Novello

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When I left school in June 1971, the Organ was in good playing order and was being used at School Assemblies.  The Organ produced a decent church sound thanks to its Diapason/Flute/Violin ranks.  To ensure that it was maintained, I had arranged for a tuning contract to be taken out with a local organ builder.  However, I think that this was discontinued after a couple of years and, without the continued attention that had been given to it, the Organ fell into disrepair.  Soon, it became unreliable and gradually fell into disuse.

Lack of use of an organ leads to air leaks with stiffening and cracking leather seals.  As a result, the various mechanisms operating the Traps and Percussions would begin to fail etc etc etc.

I would like to thank those that have contributed comments and photographs to the writing of this piece.

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