Organ raising funds for Guildford Cathedral restoration

The organ in Guildford Cathedral has more than 4,000 pipes

Sponsoring organ pipes may help a cathedral hit its £7m target for a restoration project.

Guildford Cathedral hopes public sponsorship of parts of the organ will bring in the last £500,000 and pay for work on the instrument.

The organ has been taken apart to protect it from building work around it, due to begin in the summer.

The Very Reverend Dianna Gwilliams, dean of the cathedral, said: "There are over 4,000 pipes and over 100 stops."

Members of the public will be able to sponsor a pipe or a stop and their names will be recorded, she said.

Dean Gwilliams said: "We are taking the organ apart to protect it while we carry out work inside the cathedral. We haven't done any major work on it since it was put in in the 1960s.

"To organ specialists it will sound different. It will be a much more flexible instrument."

The Grade II listed cathedral has been awarded £500,000 from the government's First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund and £4.6m from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Work is due to begin in the summer and should take a year to complete.