Shires Organ Pipes
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Social media blows our own trumpet on zinc pipe mitred joints

14/1/2022

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Mitres made by Terry Shires on 16 ft trumpet stop
Zinc mitred trumpet pipes by Shires
If there's one job that sends pipe makers round the bend, it's making mitres for customers.

Mitred joints allow organ pipes to be 'folded' to occupy a space which otherwise would be too low for their full length. In this advanced technique, pipes are made to length before being sawn to the requisite dimension in a mitre block. 

The angled pieces are in turn tacked and soldered by hand, a process which requires experience, patience,  precision and dexterity. Resonators on this 16ft trumpet were made by Chris Shires and Terry Doyle, and the mitres were created by Terry Shires, aka 'The Old Man'. 

Social media comments on the job include: 'Absolutely gorgeous work. Beautiful team work', 'craftmanship at its best' and 'brilliant work as always. The old man still has it!'


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Replacement Viole Octivante rank for St James' Church, Sydney

13/12/2021

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Viole-Octivante pipes made for Dobson Organ Builders
Our youngest pipe-maker Chris Shires has just completed a 4' Viole Octaviante for our friends at Dobson Organ Builders in Lake City, Iowa, USA.

The solo strings are being remade for St James' Church in Sydney, Australia, to replace those sadly lost in the disastrous fire at Dobson's factory earlier this year, which is described elsewhere on this page.

With C1 at 37mm diameter, these are small-scaled ranks – a challenge to any pipe-maker but very interesting work.
The rank of Viole Octivante pipes

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Corno di Bassetto among reeds made for Glatter-Götz organ builders

29/11/2021

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Reeds pipes made for organ builder Glatter-Gotz
Reeds made for Glatter-Gotz
Corno for Glatter-Gotz
​We are delighted to be working with Glatter-Götz Organ Builders from Pfullendorf, Germany, making reeds to given specifications.

Glatter-Götz was founded in 1993 and it organs range from a four-manual instrument in Walt Disney Hall (in collaboration with Manuel Rosales) to a two-manual for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
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Our work so far on the pipes for their project's Great, Choir and Swell divisions is complete. Those for the solo organ, including a French Horn, will be the next to go on to the bench in our Leeds workshop.

Among the pipes pictured are those of the Swell Corno di Bassetto.
Reeds made for German organ builder Gotz.

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With resilience and optimism, Dobson Organ Builders rises from ruinous fire

6/8/2021

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Fire at the Dobson Pipe Organ Builders factory in Iowa
Everyone at Shires was devastated to learn of the fire in June that destroyed the factory of Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Iowa, USA.

We are delighted, however, that the company, founded in 1974 by Lynn Dobson, is continuing in business in a workshop in Lake City. With typical resilience, it is focusing on service and restoration while making plans for a new headquarters. 

It has been a privilege to supply pipes to Dobson in the past few years, including ranks for its 99th organ for Saint James’ Church in Sydney, Australia, which was under construction in Iowa.

Workers were about 3,000 hours into the estimated 17,000-hour project when everything was lost to the fire, including our string stops. So we were greatly touched when the company reordered them from us for the Sydney organ.

We salute the courage and optimism of this great firm and offer John Panning and his team our best wishes for the future.

As the New York Times remarked: 'Dobson Pipe Organ Builders may have lost its building, its tools and some of its archives, but its staff remains, steeped in the kind of technical expertise that is passed from one artisan to the next.'

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Proud to work on the renewal of the Leeds Town Hall organ

16/7/2021

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Shires is delighted and proud to have been invited to work on the renewal and reconstruction of the organ in Leeds Town Hall.

Built for the opening of the Victoria Hall in 1858, the huge four-manual instrument with nearly 100 stops was later rebuilt and went through two overhauls before it fell silent in 1968.

The existing three-manual organ will be removed later this year, returning as an enlarged four-manual when the hall reopens in 2023. Among those guiding the project is the Leeds City organist, Dariius Battiwalla.

The contract to renovate the organ has been awarded to our friends at Nicholson and Co, who have asked us to help in the making of the pipes. The best of the existing pipework will be retained, but many stops will be new and we will work alongside Nicholson to make 500 pipes using traditional methods.

Terry Shires says: 'It represents something important for us to have our name associated with Leeds Town Hall. And I'm very proud that my lad, Chris Shires, will have his name on pipes he makes for this instrument. Well done to all our team.'

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String stops completed for new Dobson organ in Sydney, Australia

16/4/2021

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A rank of the string stops for the Dobson organ in Australia
We have completed the following string stops for our colleagues, Dobson Organ Builders. They will be part of the new four-manual organ for St James' Church, Sydney, Australia. (Please read news update at the top of this page).

Viole Octaviante 4' - 2'. C1 37 mm diameter, body section bellied to 40mm dia. Cornet des Violes 3 1/5' and 2 2/3'. Rank 1: tapered, C1 = 25/8.4mm. Rank 2: 19.3mm dia.

Viole d'Orchestre treble.16'-8'. C13= 78mm dia. Body bellied to 82mm. Viole Celeste 8'. F6 = 59mm. Bellied to 63 mm.

Terry Shires says: "All pipes were made from 80 per cent tin. These are some of the smallest scaled strings we have been involved with for many years. The Cornet 3 1/5' tapered rank was quite a challenge!

"My team have done a wonderful job, George Fowler made the 3 1/5 rank, Chris Shires the 2 2/3 Steve Parker, Terry Doyle and Chris Shires made the VDO. The Celeste is by Terry Doyle and Chris made the Octaviante.

"The bellying of the body section was a challenge when it came to rounding the body sections. We had to bend the mandrels slightly to be able to burnish them, which worked well. Proud of my lads."

One of the string stops for the Dobson organ in Australia
a string stop for the Dobson organ in Australia
String stop made for the Dobson organ in Australia
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Pipes made for the new Nicholson organ in Radley College

2/3/2021

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Chris Shires files an organ pipe
Gamba organ pipes for the new organ in Radley College
It has been pleasure making a selection of pipes for the new organ in Radley College, Oxfordshire, which is being built by our friends at Nicholson & Co. 
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The three-manual instrument will be sited in the centre of the west gallery within a new oak case. It will have 53 stops, with mechanical action to the keys and electro-pneumatic action to the pedal. Installation is planned for this autumn.

​Chris Shires made the bottom 12 notes of the Salicional 8', and the bottom nine notes of the Viol de Gamba, and Terry Doyle made the pedal Principal 8.

​Other pipes made in our workshop for this job included a Gemshorn, a Great Mixture IV, Swell Mixture IV and Pedal Mixture II, and an Open Diapason and Fifteenth for the Swell.
A pedal principal organ pipe made by Shires in Leeds

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Piping in the new US president? Sadly not, but perhaps another time...

19/1/2021

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The organ in St Peter's Capitol Hill, Washington
It was pleasing to read a story in the Yorkshire Post about our potential contribution to the Presidential Inauguration tomorrow in Washington DC.

Readers were told that 'the music that wafts above Washington on Wednesday as the new President takes the oath of office may have a distinctly Yorkshire ring to it.'

This was a reference to the reed pipes we made for a new organ installed by the Noak Organ Company in 2019 in St Peter's Church on Capitol Hill.
 
After the story appeared on Saturday, we were contacted by radio and TV stations anxious to follow-up on the idea that organ pipes made in Yorkshire would accompany an event on which the eyes of the world would be fixed.

Sadly, we understand that the organ will not be used in the ceremony tomorrow. However, an idea of the variety and richness of its sound may may gained from this recording of the Mass for Easter.


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Chris rounds pipe feet with tools that are 100 years old

27/9/2020

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Picture
Chris Shires demonstrates our method of rounding pipe feet using a block and wooden mandrils in the video, below. The tools he is using – a close up of a block is above – are over 100 years old. 
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Display organ pipes made from 80 per cent tin – the great cover-up

22/8/2020

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A group of organ pipes of 80 per cent tin
Organ pipes with a protective cover
There's a particular beauty to an organ facade displaying pipes of 80 per cent tin. A great deal of delicate work goes into manufacturing them so it is important they retain the brilliance of the factory finish when installed. The picture, right, shows the covering we apply to all front pipes. It protects the metal from marks, yet the pipes can be voiced and handled until they are placed in the instrument.

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Boss talks about embossing – and shows a pipe with more than one mouth

5/7/2020

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Nowhere are the pipe maker's many skills more richly expressed than in pipes made for decoration, display – or sheer fun. In these videos, Terry Shires – celebrating 45 years as a pipemaker – talks about the processes involved in making an embossed, dimpled organ pipe, a 'jester' and  pipes with more than one mouth. 
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Template for an embossed organ pipe
An embossed organ pipe made by Terry Shires

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Fresh life for damaged pipes from 1880 Forster and Andrews

18/6/2020

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Some damaged organ pipes
Damaged flue pipes ready for repair
Damaged organ reed pipes to repair
The reed pipes in for repair
These pipes come from a two-manual Forster and Andrews organ built in 1893 for a church in Scotland and recently installed in a Roman Catholic church in Leeds. They had been damaged and badly repaired over the years and were brought to us for restoration by David Wood of Wood Organ Builders of Huddersfield. George Fowler, who has a remarkable history as a restorer, repaired the flue pipes and Terry Shires, also with wide experience in pipe restoration, gave fresh life to the reeds.
Damaged organ pipes after repair
The flues after repair
Reed organ pipes after repair
The reeds after repair

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How we create holes for brass wedges - by a chip off the block

22/4/2020

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How do we create holes in a reed block to fit brass wedges? The American organist and organ builder Richard Maryman wondered if we had a video to demonstrate the process.
As we like to make our pipe-making techniques clear, Terry Shires shows how it is done. 
The bed of the machine is set to seven degrees to accommodate the angle of the wedges. 
Elsewhere, you can see how we cast reed blocks.

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A Skinner-style Vox Humana completed for a large organ in New York

2/4/2020

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Pipe maker Chris Shires makes a Vox Humana organ stop
A row of completed Vox Humana organ pipes
A detail of a Skinner-style Vox Humana reed organ pipe.
Here is Chris Shires at his workbench making a Vox Humana 8' in the style of the American organ builder Skinner for a large organ in New York.

The Vox Humana – a reed which mimics the human voice – is one of the oldest of the organ stops, dating from at least the late 16th century.

​Terry Shires says: "It has been made made to the scales and style of Skinner, with vented cans and the longest boots we have made in a long while!

"I will now fit shallots, take out wedge holes for our customer to fit brass wedges, and then solder blocks to pipes." 

Those with a keen eye will notice the interesting construction for tuning. The image, above, of an original Skinner stop, shows the tuning method.

A completed Vox Humana organ pipe.

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Mighty mitres for beautifully crafted eight-foot hautbois pipes

10/2/2020

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Mitres cut into an organ pipe.
An eight-foot Hautbois pipe mitred by Terry Shires.
Six organ pipes with mitres created in our workshop.
​This tricky sort of work would be enough to send most of us round the bend –  but it's just one of the skills in regular use in our Leeds workshop. The beautifully crafted eight-foot Hautbois pipes were made by Terry Shires from zinc with spotted metal bells. He says: 'Cutting and soldering mitres is one of my favourite jobs. Preparation and experience helps too!'

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Shires Organ Pipes Ltd
​
Unit 7a -7c, Spence Mills, Mill Lane,
Bramley, 
Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS13 3HE.
Phone: 0113 219 0221
​

​Registered No: 05601081.
Institute or Organ Builders' logo
Supplier member
We manufacture, repair and restore metal organ pipes to a high standard from our workshop in West Yorkshire, UK.
​Please contact us to see how our team can assist your organ building or restoration project, no matter how large or small.

TESTIMONIALS: Read what our customers have to say about us

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  • Home
  • About
    • All our Yesterdays
    • Privacy
  • Services
    • How an organ pipe is made >
      • Tools of our trade
    • Flue pipes
    • Reed Pipes
    • Display pipes
    • Restoration and Repair
  • News
    • Archive of news stories
  • Gallery
  • Gifts
  • Testimonials
  • Contact