Site Meeting of Project Team, HLF, EH and AHF

Yvonne Lee CEO Age Uk Oldham (front centre) welcomes sponsors and the project team
(photograph by Andrew Fielding)

Left to right -
Henry Owen-John; Head of English Heritage North West
Sara Hilton; Head of HLF North West
Gavin Richards: Architectural Heritage Fund

The Project Team lead by Yvonne Lee, CEO of Age UK Oldham  met with the major heritage funders today to allow them to see the chapel before restoration works begin on 4th February.
Attending was Henry Owen-John, Head of English Heritage North West; Sarah Hilton head of the HLF North West and Gavin Richards of the Architectural Heritage Fund who are administrating the grant awarded by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Challenge Fund which is made up of £100,000 - £50,000 each from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and English Heritage. The HLF award is for £948,2000.

Our Project Team is made up of architect John Prichard of Lloyd Evans Prichard, building contractor Adrian Walker of Lambert Walker; Sandy Roy, HLF architectural advisor; Jeff Hinchcliffe, project manager; Sue Redmond, Age UK Oldham and Laura Whalley, HLF case office and Andrew Fielding, heritage advisor.

Everyone appreciated the opportunity to visit the chapel and see it as it is now before the plaster is taken of the walls, the pointing is raked out, the roof is dismantled etc etc. Check out this blog to keep up to date with the works as it progresses.

It was another freezing cold day with snow on the ground. See how the chapel looked today -

Front elevation.

Rear elevation

FOGS Study Day 26 Jan, 2013

There will be a Friends of George Street Study Day

Saturday 26 January, 2013.

10.30 to 4.30pm

at

Age UK Oldham

Church Lane

Oldham

AGENDA

To pull together information on the following topics and draft a work programme to fill in gaps.

1. Independent Methodism and the Nields
2. The chapel as a building
3. Those who lived in the cellar dwellings
4. The local area of George Street
5. Organisations who used the chapel - Boys Brigade, Temperance etc
6. The restoration works programme
7. Itinary for trips FOGS members could make 
- to other chapel projects;
- Organ restoration to see David Wood, Huddersfield etc

Dismantling the Pipe Organ at George Street, Oldham Nov 2012

We dismantled the pipe organ at the end of November for refurbishment by David Wood Organs in Huddersfield.

This is a video record of how it was dismantled.

We will follow the careful work of David Wood and his team as they give our organ some well deserved tlc.

Talk on George Street Chapel - 16 January, 2013

Roy Lees is giving a talk to Oldham Historical Society on Wednesday, 16^th January at 19:00, at Oldham Local Studies and Archives Centre.

The talk will be on - 

'The beginnings, the history, the people, and the renovation of George Street Chapel with its cellar dwellings.'

Pipe Organ Research - names associated with maintenance

Our recent dismantling of the pipe organ has uncovered a number of names associated with the building and maintaining of the organ.
We haven't yet discovered who it was originally made for, or where it was used but believe it was relocated to George Street Chapel about 1874.
Keys of the manuals are stamped with both the name of the maker, GW MOORE and the company for whom he worked was R&M DAWSON. The manuals are numbered sequentially 590 and 591.
It seems the original order number may have been 21, which might help with tracking down who made it and for where.

A business card was found which suggests that work was carried out around 1911 by J.P. CROFT, Organ Builder, of 98, Coombrook Street, Manchester (formerly of 66 Oxford Street, Old Trafford, Manchester). Could this be Cornbrook Street?
We have now discovered that JP Croft acted as executor to the will of George Benson, Organ Builder, in 1917 who had premises at 60 Cornbrook Park Road, City Road, Manchester.

A pencil note left on the lead weights over the keys of one of the manuals tells us that the organ was CLEANED & OVERHAULED in FEB 1914 by J. BATH and H. BARLOW.

Roy Lees has already tracked down JP Croft through Census Returns to the address on his card but we have a lot more work to do to associate all the names now linked to the organ.
More information to follow as we uncover it. Or, if you have information that can help, please leave us a message.

Pipe Organ Detailing

We have started to look at the paint work on the pipes of the pipe organ, and to seek expert advise on their restoration. The original paint work is far grander than the over painted light grey suggests.
the paint analysis has been carried out by Hirst Conservation.
More information to come as it is uncovered.

Friends of George Street December Meeting

The next FOGS, Friends of George Street, meeting will be held at Age UK office on wednesday 12 December. If you are coming along please RSVP to Maggie Hurley, Community Development Officer at Age UK Oldham.