A mild restoration

[Dave]

Yeah, thanks. It'll be an inspection, as much to see a manufacturers name and hopefully date, then just to check the blades arent filthy. Its probably not been touched for 50 years....

[aeolian pat]

This specification is quite nice.
Often the choir manual can be thought of as the softer or lighter stops of the great moved to a chest that is enclosed. Quite often a powerful reed is placed there so it can be used at various levels of intensity. So a small three manual can be thought of as a large two manual with a divided great.
In your stop-list you will find a No.1 Diapason it may be a Phonon, this set of pipes would be designed for solo passages and it's leathered upper lip allowed for an attack that blends the sound of successive notes for legato melody passages. It also would act as a foundation tone in playing pieces like a Beethoven Symphony. It often works well used by itself with the 4 gt-to-gt coupler.
Your second diapason is for ensemble build-up .
In organ language we call the basic group of stops the big four. All at 8 foot, the (2nd on this organ) open diapason, the Gambe, (string sound), the large open harmonic flute, and the soft stopped flute.They were designed to be drawn together for a rich base of sound.
You notice that the Gambe is separated into the choir where it is designed to act as a substitute 8 foot diapason, the harmonic flute is raised an octave and can be used as a solo flute.. The Clarionet is imitative but can be used as a soft trumpet in light choruses, the spelling is peculiar to the era.The Clarabella is often a large open flute solo stop, it may work as the Harmonic Flute , they are all different.
Nice to see a swell Celeste on this organ this was not always so in British organ building. This stop is tuned sharp and provides a beautiful undulation imitative of a set of violins playing together. Often a second but soft unison string was provided rather than a Celeste.
Both swell reeds are for solo or chorus work, the Cornopean is a type of trumpet, smooth and dark. As with the Tromba on the great, the reeds should be thought of as imitating the town band type of brass.
The 16 foot open diapason in the pedal is unusual, for most diapasons of time were made of wood. this one may be on the brighter side. The scale looks pretty large, capable of a good amount of bass tone. If there is room in the chamber, a large 16 foot reed and an 8 foot metal Cello are all that is missing for a complete pedal.
Here is an article on tracker terminology which may be helpful in future postings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracker_action
The large boxes on which the pipes sit are referred to as Windchests. The boxes supplying air are called Regulators or Reservoirs, depending on their function. The air coming from the blower is at an arbitrary pressure and volume and must pass through a stabilizing device, the Regulator, this is passed through an air storage device essentially very near the pipes call the Reservoir. It is important that all of the wind trunks are made of stout material so that they are not the source of de-stabilized air. That's why they will all be of wood or metal.
You will notice that the larger pipes, particularly the diapasons and large flutes of the manuals have their bass pipes on Offset chests with their own reservoirs, this is because they suck up a great deal of air and they would steal air from the smaller pipes causing a Jitter in the small pipe speech.
This looks like an instrument that could be saved at a reasonable cost. The greatest cost might be to repair the coupler mechanism. There is not too much that can go wrong unless water is allowed to damage the windchests or the Wooden pipes.Most work could be done in small stages.

Thank you for sharing this little beauty with us..
Regards
Pat

[Dave]

Thanks Pat. Hopefull over time some of what you say about the different stops will make sense to me when I can stop thinking about the mechanics and start really thinking about playing. I'm hopeful that the coupler issue may be a barely connected larger (2" ish) pipe just inside the console. Theres certainly 1, maybe 2 of the offset chests non functional given the range of notes missing on the pedal open diapson. I am however very glad to say that theres zero evidence of any water ingress and the entire roof on that side of the building was recently replaced. This may however also be responsible for detritus in the great departments pipes.....

[aeolian pat]

The leather being used in those days was of extraordinary, high quality. Some say it was Kangaroo hide, others say that the treatment with mercury in tanning was that part that kept the leather supple.So the many pouches and valves in the coupler machine may very well be OK. Leather is best when it is kept working.

When the Empire was at its peak, high quality materials were available at reasonable prices even though there were no trees in Britannia there was a great deal of old growth wood available for pipe organ builders..

[Innocentti]

This organ is listed on the UK National Pipe Organ Register.

[aeolian pat]

Seems that this might be a very fine instrument indeed.
See this interesting bit of lore dive deep.
https://mander-organs-forum.invision...ders-leeds/ery