Category: News

The June meeting of the BIOS Council approved five new Historic Organ Listings. Morville, St Gregory, c 1855 Holdich [N04753]: Grade II An organ by Holdich from c 1855 that contains historic pipework and includes a rare, intact example of a Holdich Diaocton. Grade, Cornwall, St Grada & Holy Cross, 1885 Brewer & Co [D00797]: Grade…

BIOS will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026 with a residential conference in Oxford from 9-11 April. The topic of the conference will be “The Global British Organ”. We warmly invite proposals for individual papers and themed round-table discussions, as well as other types of presentation (including 30-minute lecture-recitals, venue permitting), on any relevant…

St John’s Church, 12 St John’s Street, Chichester PO19 1UU Saturday 7th June: Opened in 1813, St John’s Chapel is a rare surviving example of a Georgian proprietary chapel retaining most of its original early nineteenth century features. Proprietary chapels were a solution to the problem of insufficient capacity within existing parish churches to meet…

Saturday April 12th 2025 – 10.30 for 11.00 The morning featured talks entitled ‘Wills, Willis and St Monica’s Care Home, Westbury-on-Trym’ with William McVicker and Owen Woods charting the history and technical detail of what was the Wills family house organ. In addition Ds Bertjan van de Lagemaat, Minister of the Dutch Church, provided a…

The BIOS Historic Organ Sound Archive (HOSA) continues to grow. The latest addition to the YouTube collection is the 1755 Snetzler organ now at Clare College in Cambridge and restored by the William Drake company. (NPOR A01068). Dr Anna Steppler plays music by Eliza Turner, Maurice Greene, Ignatius Sancho, Elisabetta de Gambarini and G F…

Richard D. Hird MA MRTPI LTCL had a number of roles in the UK organ world and died a few days ago. He was active in several organisations as well as BIOS. For many years he was the BIOS Honorary Treasurer and also built and managed the website BIOS used until 2012. By profession he…

The January meeting of the BIOS Council approved three new Historic Organ Listings. Upper Slaughter, St Peter, 1855 J Walker [D01288]: Grade II A surviving, characteristic example of an organ from 1855 by a prominent builder at a period of transition in British organ building. Harby, St Mary 1808 Elliot, 1874 Lloyd [K01581]: Grade II…

BIOS is very sorry to notify the death of John Norman, for many years a trustee and Council Member of BIOS, and for several years also its chairman and until quite recently, its webmaster. That he held Honorary Life Membership of BIOS is an indication of the huge amount we owe to him. All of…

BIOS Council is sorry to hear of the deaths of two long-standing members, David Wickens and Dr Christopher Kent BEM. David was BIOS Archivist for many years and the publisher of important books on Samuel Green and the intricacies of pipe-scaling. Christopher was an Elgar scholar and founder of the Organ Historiography Course at the…

BIOS has recently purchased a document for the British Organ Archive. It is an album of ephemera relating to the work and life of George Maydwell Holdich (1816-1896), including specifications, watercolours and letters, etc. The watercolours are finely executed, showing interesting detail. They cover the period 1838 to 1845. It is not clear exactly what…