In a few short months the organ at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon will go silent. This is not a bad thing as much-needed restoration work will be taking place which was deferred due to the pandemic. Major scaffolding will be put in place and all pipework will be removed. Leather actions and mechanical parts will be removed and rebuilt, and soundboards and other wind chests cleaned, repaired, and restored. Leaking wind lines, a major source of noise throughout the church when the organ is on, will be replaced with new. Rough-sounding pipes will be reworked to speak properly. And conso ..read more

Composers and musicians come from all sorts of family backgrounds. Some were born into privileged circumstances while others were less fortunate. Some were exposed to music through their family while others had no musical family whatsoever. Go figure! For Ralph Vaughan Williams, he was exposed to church music very early as his father was an Anglican vicar. For Herbert Howells, it was a little different. His father was a jack-of-all-trades handyman who struggled financially. Unlike RVW who was born in a vicarage, Herbert (the youngest of several children) was born in a modest house on the High ..read more

The famous Pentecost hymn “Come down, O Love divine” is frequently sung to the tune Down Ampney written by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1906. Named after the Cotswold village where he was born in 1872, Down Ampney is also home to All Saints’ Church where his father, Arthur, was vicar and where Ralph was baptized. The church was built in the 13th-century and is situated on the edge of the village in a very bucolic setting. The Old Vicarage where Ralph was born on 12 October is located in the village proper and is now a private home. The LychgateChurchyardAll Saints’ ChurchNave and Rood ScreenQuire ..read more