Ewell: The Willis Organ

History
The organ of the parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Ewell was originally built in 1889 by the famous organ builder Henry Willis, who served his apprenticeship with Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, for the Anglican parish church of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St. Augustine], Highbury. However, there was in 1975 a real risk that the latter church was to be closed, so, to protect the organ's future, they sold it to Saint Mary's, which had lost a similar instrument in a fire two years previously. However, in an ironic twist of fate, the church in Highbury was reprieved just days after the organ was removed and another nearby church, dedicated to St. John, closed instead (whose rather smaller organ was installed at St. Augustine's). The Ewell organ was installed in its new home by Rushworth and Dreaper, but, despite that and the then-prevalent fashion to neoclassicize Victorian organs, was tonally left as originally intended. This superb instrument is, despite its prestigious origins (it was often regarded as the best of several similar instruments built in the Highbury area), comparatively little-known. The Vicar of Ewell, the Parochial Church Council, the Director of Music and the Sub-organist have decided that efforts should be made to redress this situation and, to that end, are to promote the instrument through a number of recitals and concerts, the particulars of which can be viewed here.