Nicola Lisle on a Bampton concert to fundraise for its £150,000 appeal

You might have seen it being used for weddings in Downtown Abbey, but now St Mary’s Church in Bampton is at the centre of a very different kind of drama.

For the past 12 months locals have been raising funds to rebuild and improve the 200-year-old Gray and Davidson pipe organ, and are almost halfway towards their target of £150,000.

“The organ is a bit old and crotchety and goes out of tune very quickly,” explains Richard Wilkins, a local parish councillor who also sings in the church choir.

“What they’re going to do is take it apart completely, take all the tracker action out of it and put a few extra voices in.

“There’s also going to be a completely new detachable console. It’s going to be in the same place as the old keyboard, but it can be moved out.

“There’s a lot of very large pillars in St Mary’s Church and the organ doesn’t speak very well into the church, so they’re trying to position it a bit nearer to the arch which is taking a lot of sound away from it.

“We’re hoping work will start in the New Year, and it should take about six months to complete.”

Meanwhile, the fundraising continues. This weekend, broadcaster and former King’s Singer Brian Kay will be bringing his own vocal ensemble, the Brian Kay Chorale, to Bampton Church for a concert of assorted musical delights.

This will include a group of madrigals, George Dyson’s Three Songs of Praise, Elgar’s Songs from the Bavarian Highlands and some “shreds and patches” from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

“The idea is that it should be a fairly light-hearted, enjoyable evening,” says Brian.

“The singers are all members of the Burford Singers, and we do concerts from time to time. There’s anything up to 20 of us. People who sing in a large choir very often relish the opportunity of singing in a smaller group.

“The particular pleasure for me with a small group, having had quite a bit of experience of small group singing, is working on the sound, creating a sound that makes sense, trying not just to make it a random group of singers having a good sing together, but actually creating something that sounds as if it was worth getting together.

“Any twenty singers can get together and have a good sing. But the challenge is to mould the sound, and create a sound that people want to listen to.

“It’ll be lovely for us to sing in such a fine church – I think it’s one of the things we’re looking forward to most.”

Other fundraising events this year include the Karavai Balalaika Quartet on September 18, followed by a barn dance on October 2.

As for the future, there are ambitious plans to establish St Mary’s as another concert venue for Oxfordshire.

“We’d like to get a grand piano, then we can start having some nice chamber music recitals,“ says Richard. “That would work very well in Bampton.

“So even after the fundraising concerts have finished, we would like to see the church used as a regular concert venue.

“We’ve got the staging and the acoustic, and we’ve got parking round the church. And hopefully we‘re going to have a splendid new organ!”

Where and when
The Brian Kay Chorale: Music For You. St Mary’s Church, Bampton. Saturday, 7.30pm. bamptonchurch.org.uk 
Tickets: 07901 658737