Registered
Charity No 00517699
Berwick Parish Church Trust was
formed in May 1986 as a registered charity, by a group of church members and
other citizens of the town and neighbourhood with a common interest in
assisting in the repair and restoration of this historic place of worship.
The Trust’s main objective is to
raise funds to ensure that the building continues to be maintained as a fitting
and worthy place of worship within the town.
In the past 20 years the Trust has
raised well over £500,000 to meet the cost of major works to the roofs,
windows, exterior and interior stonework, ironwork and heating system but much
remains to be done to repair and restore the roof, other windows, stonework and
monuments, as well as the restoration, re-building g and enhancement of the
fine pipe organ, which is the Trust’s current major project.
The
Organ Restoration Project 2007-2010
The Organ Restoration Project is
part of the PCC’s work to develop the
church and the adjoining parish centre as a Christian Community Centre and is
intended to provide a fine musical facility for community, civic, military and
other occasions, providing an opportunity, unrivalled locally, for choral
singing, recitals, concerts and teaching musicians, young and old.
The project will cost £160,000, all
of which will need to be raised from the local community, church reserves and
other grant-aiding and philanthropic individuals and bodies.
Although the cost of restoring the
pipe organ had appeared for some years to be quite beyond the means and
resources of the Parochial Church
Council, a parishioner’s gift in 2006, specifically directed to its
restoration, and a number of bequests persuaded the PCC, in conjunction with
the Parish Church Trust (a charity established in 1986 specifically to assist
the PCC in the restoration and repair of the building) to seek professional
advice from a number of sources each of which has concluded that the pipe organ
is a fine and well-built instrument worthy of restoration. A preferred contractor, Principal Pipe Organs
of
Two enhancements have been built
into the specification to allow the organ to be used in a wider community role;
first, the console will be mounted on a new mobile platform which will allow it
to be positioned to best effect within the church for concerts, recitals and
the like; and, secondly, a new Fanfare Trumpet will be built into the organ
with 56 new pipes on one stop, which will greatly enhance the appeal of the
instrument for concerts and recitals and will enable it to be used to wonderful
effect over the full range of the organ repertoire and on occasions of pomp and
ceremony.
When the project has been completed,
Berwick upon Tweed will possess one of the great organs in the North of
If you would like to make
a donation towards this project specifically, or a general gift to the Trust or
the Parochial Church Council, please download and complete the Donation Form
which you will find elsewhere on this website.