Visit to Upminster and Woodford

Visit to St Laurence’s, Upminster and St Mary’s, Woodford

Saturday 24th February 2018

We were welcomed to St Laurence’s by Richard Brasier, the Director of Music. Before showing us the organ, he gave us a guided tour of the church, some of which dates to the 13th century and is Grade 1 listed. The church was one of three minsters founded in Saxon times by St Said who had journeyed down from Lindisfarne. There have been several additions in the intervening centuries, the most recent dating to the 1930s.

The Tickell organ replaced an organ that had been installed in the 1880s and had been added to several times and moved to various positions in the building until, eventually, a decision was made that a replacement was the best option. He built a 2M/P suspended tracker action organ. After relating this brief history of the organs, Richard Brasier then gave us a superb demonstration of the organ by playing a chorale prelude from the Clavierubung III and a toccata in A minor (Op 80) by Max Reger. He is clearly a very fine organist.

As Richard Pilliner had arranged a 3 hour visit, there was ample opportunity for each of us to play two or three times. With Richard Brasier’s expert assistance with registration I think we all gave a good account of ourselves in a wide selection of styles and periods ranging from Couperin and John James to William Mathias via JSB, Bohm, Boellman, Guilmant ,Flor Peeters and Grieg (amongst others).

We were all sorry to have to leave at 1pm. I know I could have happily carried on playing that organ all afternoon. We thanked our host profusely for his time and expertise and set off for Woodford.

At St Mary’s, Woodford, in contrast to our morning visit, we were given the key to the church and allowed to explore the 1971 3M/P Grant, Degens and Bradbeer instrument. This was another organ that we all enjoyed playing immensely. An unusual feature is that the Swell and Choir manuals(or, more accurately, the Brustwerk and Schwellewerk) are juxtaposed. A joy to play and not nearly as brash as we were expecting, I noticed that we were all favouring our baroque repertoire.

5pm came around all too soon and we had to lock up and hand the keys back.

Many thanks to Richard Pilliner for organising such a memorable visit.

Andrew Chadney – Chair