A page of a promotional catalogue produced in 1983? by the now defunct Leeds pipe-making company of F J Rogers. In the top- picture, Terry Shires can be seen planing metal.
All our yesterdays: Our company can trace pipe-making links back to the 19th century

Tracing our pipe-making links back to the 19th century

With the oldest member in his mid-70s and the youngest 20, our team spans a wide range of experience – and our company can trace pipe-making links back to the 19th century.

Organ pipe makers are, and always have been, a close-knit community and we plan to create in words and pictures a brief social history of pipe-making in West Yorkshire and our various connections to it.

The image, left, shows a page of a promotional catalogue produced in or around 1983 by the now defunct Leeds pipe-making company of F J Rogers. At the top, Terry Shires, now managing director of Shires Organ Pipes, can be seen planing metal – one of his favourite pastimes!

The picture in the middle is of Tim Gilley, now in Australia and doing very well running his own company.

Below is John Jethro Warr, 60 years a pipe maker, formerly the workshop foreman at F J Rogers, and now the elder statesmen in the team at Shires Organ Pipes, where he works part-time.

Toolbox that spans the generations passes to our youngest pipe-maker

This was the special day in 2013 when John Warr handed his tool box keys to 18-year-old apprentice pipe-maker, Chris Shires, son of Terry.

John, who works part-time with us, had been given the tools, which he used daily, in 1953 by a pipe maker who had just retired. To underline the continuity that runs through the trade, these were the same tools used by Terry Shires when John taught him as an apprentice. 

​John said: "All the tools I used have been handed down from retired people and they are tools that you can’t buy off the shelf. These were specially made for the trade and most of them are over 100 years old.”

Chris now uses the tools every day – and that's one of the ways our company can trace pipe-making links back to the 19th century!
Passing on the tradition: John Warr, 78, hands the toolbox keys to 18-year-old apprentice pipe maker Chris Shires.

Back in the day: Scenes from F J Rogers

John Warr of Shires Organ Pipes is pictured in the workshop of F J Rodgers of Bramley, where he worked for many years, with Tommy Iredale in the background.
Another shipment of pipes ready to go from F J Rogers. Tony Jennings at the front is doing an Irish jig.
Henry Willis IV shows John Warr how to solder a foot to body. It was an open day at F J Rogers in 1983. John said to Henry: "If you think you can do better..." So he tried. Henry wasn't as good a pipe maker as John – but he thought he was!
Early days at F J Rogers: From left, Andy Wishart, Terry Doyle, Darren Johnson and Terry Shires, receiving a peck on the cheek.
This sturdy rounding block may be more than 100 years old – but it remains in daily use.
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It contains the stamped signatures of A Calthorpe,  W Dickinson, J J Warr and C Shires.

John Warr still works at Shires Organ Pipes and this was among the tools he gave to the youngest name on the block, Chris Shires when he began as an apprentice.

Why Chris is a chip off the old block

Soldering on: John Warr – then and now

The handsome chap, top right, is none other than John Warr, the veteran member of the Shires team. With a crisp shirt and tie, he looks smart and professional in this picture taken when he was 19 at the old Rogers pipe making shop on Town Street, Bramley. And the handsome chap right? That's 42-year-old John cupping pipe toes. And above? Now 78, John is still at the bench where he has lost none of his skill, energy, enthusiasm or quality – though his hair is not quite as abundant! 

Yours for just £15.20 – a new, 73 note Tuba rank

Ah, those were the days: A 73-note 8ft tuba rank for £15.20, voicing 25p extra. A 16ft trombone for £38.50 and an open diapason for £16.80. These details are taken from a price list sent by the Yorkshire Pipe Making Company to L Luberoff of New York.
​The company was run by Fred Horne and Stanley Wilkinson until the 1930s when they closed it and took over F J Rodgers pipe makers of Bramley.

In the beginning...

They say nostalgia isn't what it used to be...

​This is the day – June 30, 1975 at 8 am precisely – that Terry Shires started work at F J Rogers in Bramley. He says: "That makes me 41 years a pipemaker!
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"I am very lucky to have worked with the best craftsmen our trade have produced. Indeed, some of them are still working with me today.

"My first job was washing pipes ready to polish. My job today is finishing off a 16ft Contra Fagotto for a new organ by Robin Jennings."

John Jepson Binns, organ builder – one of our neighbours of old

Our workshop lies not far from the site of the former organ works of JJ BInns in Bramley, Leeds. The information on the right is taken  from the Leodis photographic archive of Leeds.

The caption reads: "This 1900 image shows the Bramley Organ Works with Cross Bath Road on the left and Hough Lane on the right. Established by James Jepson Binns of Warrel's Grove in 1880. In the late 1870s Binns worked for the organ builders Messrs Abbot & Co, (sic) when he was challenged on a matter of organ building by the Leeds musician J W Broughton.

​"When Binns succeeded in the task, Broughton found investers (sic) to help start up the Bramley Organ Works. Binns' (1855 -1929) outstanding work and the style of his organ building contributed to him earning the nickname 'Battleship Binns'. Demolition of the works and a redevelopment of the surrounding terraced houses began after the 1950s."