The church was built by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1854-8, after the medieval church was consumed by fire in 1853. It is by far his most successful church, as proud a statement of the beliefs of its builders as could be imagined. The Schulze organ of five manuals and ninety-four stops had a great and pervasive influence on British organ building, and it is not difficult to imagine why.

The remarkable thing is that the organ survives in such a complete state. Only one rank from the 1862 organ has been lost, though there have been alterations in the voicing of others. Also missing are the console, the key action with its original Barker lever machines to Great and Swell, the Pedal chests, and the original bellows. The most significant later addition is the 1910 Norman & Beard Solo organ.

The day started with the organist at Doncaster, Joseph Sentance, displaying some of the effects of the organ, and Ian Bell as consultant to the project introducing us to its history and to the concerns of the current restoration project. As a self-contained project, N.P. Mander had been asked to conduct a feasibility study, examining the surviving Schulze material at Doncaster and elsewhere. John Mander and Geoff Macmahon introduced the results of this research, which will be made available to those tendering for the restoration.

Lunch provided the opportunity to take a look inside the organ, and to examine the Mander research. Stephen Bicknell gave an account of Schulze's artistic aims, and the elements of his voicing style. We were left in no doubt about the reasons for the popularity of this particular German firm in this country, the obvious differences from English builders, and the impact on the new generation, which had much opportunity for getting to know Schulze and his work. Much of the organ was made in the church and installation took two years.
An open forum followed Stephen Bicknell's talk, guided by Ian Bell. After the information already given about the organ, and in the knowledge that the Heritage Lottery Fund is looking favourably on the idea of restoration to 1862, it was perhaps not surprising that the general response to the idea was favourable, but the degree of enthusiasm was nonetheless heart-warming. It does look as if this country will at last get a restoration of a major historic instrument without any thought of present convenience or artistic compromise.

The one dissenting voice was that of the organist, who protested the difficulty of playing such a vast instrument without more than the original playing aids, which he did bravely, and without noticeable support from his audience. The issue of "playing aids" has become a major dividing line between builders, advisers and organists. I wonder whether listeners feel as strongly about organists having sophisticated playing aids as organists themselves (i.e. whether the effect is worthwhile for the listener), or whether the aids are themselves an extension of a kaleidoscopic registrational style which has developed because of a desire on the art of organists to make their programmes more "interesting".

So far as the music is concerned it must often be anachronistic. Stephen Bicknell produced the example of the Edwardian organ at Bristol Cathedral with its simple set registrations, and the fairly conservative and static registrational approach they entailed. Most of the music played on the 1862 Doncaster organ must also have been fairly straight in its colouring, or perhaps audiences and congregations were more willing to hang around than we are in our impatient age.

That brings me to my one anxiety about the legitimacy of such projects as the one proposed at Doncaster. The restoration of an organ to an earlier stage in its life is sterile, not to say quixotic, if it does not teach us about the musical culture and practice of its day. If all it does is make performance of the current repertoire more difficult, then the organists are right. But if it gives us some ideas about the impact that Schulze made in 1862, teaches us something about the sources of our musical culture and taps into the vitality of the music originally played on it, then we will have learnt and experienced something.

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