Pershore Abbey prepares for new £800K pipe organ

Canon Claire Lording said having the pipe organ was "a dream"

A new pipe organ is being installed at Pershore Abbey after a huge fundraising effort.

The £800,000 instrument has been made in Padua, Italy, and will take weeks to install and tune at the centuries-old abbey in Worcestershire.

Previously, it relied on an electronic organ and Canon Claire Lording said having the pipes was "a dream".

"This is so exciting for us," she said. "It's the culmination of a project that's been going on over 20 years."

The project was supported by the Friends of Pershore Abbey and was also funded by allowing people to "adopt a pipe".

"There are masses of pipes in this organs," said Canon Lording, adding that about £70,000 had been raised in this way.

The organ will be placed on a bespoke platform in the Abbey

The project has not been without its challenges however.

Canon Lording said there was no room on the floor of the abbey to install the organ so it is having to be placed on a bespoke platform, meaning lots of scaffolding during the work.

"We've been really mindful that the abbey is an open, used church," she said.

"We have services, we have lots of visitors, so we wanted to have a construction method which enabled that to continue as much as possible."

Once the installation and tuning is complete, Canon Lording said she hoped the organ would be in Pershore Abbey "for hundreds of years".

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [e-mail]