BIOS Reporter – Volume 33, No.1 – January 2009

If one searches NPOR using the terms ‘school’ or ‘college’ there are a large number of ‘hits’. At one level this is not surprising as many organists and organ scholars received their early training and exposure to organs at school. Long may this continue – but most of these schools are in the private sector. However, one thing which we are concerned about is the lack of appreciation for organs among the general public. With declining numbers in congregations and the gradual disappearance of organs from public halls, the fact is that that fewer and fewer people are likely to hear an organ ‘in the flesh’. Given that the vast majority of people receive their education in state schools – as I did – which are, for the most part, organ ‘deserts’, then exposure to organs in early life is going to remain a hit-or-miss affair unless something dramatic happens. Nonetheless, there are also organ ‘oases’ in the public education sector – the sixth form college where I am a parent governor, Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College in Leicester, has a fine 1932 Walker organ splendidly situated on a gallery in a large hall. Maltby Comprehensive School in Rotherham has a large three-manual organ, as does Longslade School in Birstall (Leicestershire), both of which were installed in the 70s and 80s by enthusiastic and competent staff. I imagined that the two examples that I have given from Leicestershire were not exceptional…