Church organ finds new home only 10 miles away

Villagers and an organ specialist have been taking the organ to bits

A 101-year-old church organ in a former chapel in Cornwall is being moved about 10 miles (16km) away after a community appeal to find a new home for it.

The Nanstallon Community Trust bought the Nanstallon Methodist Chapel last December and has turned it into a village hall, but members felt the organ took up too much of the available space.

The organ was installed in 1923 and was built by the local firm of J Trudgian & Son of St Dennis.

The trust - which said it had been contacted by people all over the world but really wanted it to stay in the county and definitely not end up "in the skip" - said it had been successfully acquired by the Market Hall in St Austell.

The Nanstallon Methodist Church organ in its heyday

Villagers and organ specialist Clive Ellison have been taking the Trudjian organ and its 300 pipes to bits.

J Trudjian & Son built 32 such organs but the one in Nanstallon is believed to be only one of six of its type which have survived.

Mr Ellison said: "When you have an organ pipe and put a stopper in the end, it speaks an octave lower.

"Quite a few of these stoppers have a piercing in the top which gives it a particularly nice tone, and there were various very well-known makers that used to do that and this is something Mr Trudjian applied to this organ.

"It's quite compact and quite substantially built in places."

The Nanstallon Methodist Organ with its 300 pipes removed

Sheila Trethewey, from the community trust, said offers for it were made from as far afield as Ireland and South Africa.

She said: "It's sad to see it go but this is now a village hall; it's not a chapel any more.

"Hopefully, in its new home in St Austell, people will be able to go along there and actually play it, which is absolutely awesome."

Trust member Sylvia Oaten said she felt relief that the organ was "not going into the tip".

She said: "We had other people interested and we desperately tried to keep it local.

"It's sad that it is going. It's got to go - that was the decision that was made and, at the same time, it's going somewhere where its going to be played and valued."

The village hall has become a popular community asset, with frequent pub, games and quiz nights.

There is also a yoga club, arts and crafts club, as well as a gardening club.

The removal of the organ would provide enough space for an extra 50 people in the hall, the trust said.

Nanstallon Community Trust has also received some money from Cornwall Council's Levelling Up Fund to have building work carried out, including ramps for disabled access, new toilets and a new kitchen.

Sheila Trethewey says the organ's removal will allow 100 people inside the hall, up from 50