New Beginnings

On learning of the impending closure of the New Victoria (then Gaumont), contact was made with officials of the Rank Organisation with a view towards making an offer to purchase the 3/10 Wurlitzer for preservation.  To our delight the offer we made was accepted and we were informed that the organ was ours; so far so good.  We were informed that the organ had to be removed before the commencement date given to the building contractors to start major construction work to convert the huge 3,300 seat auditorium into smaller cinemas.  That proved to be a sting in the tail as the date in question was little more than a week after the closure of the theatre!

A series of hurried telephone calls resulted in a team of ten heading to Bradford to remove the organ.  Three major obstacles gave rise to much hair-tearing, sweat (and tears) and a few words not listed in Collins English Dictionary!  The first was that the two organ chambers, blower room and relay room were all above the proscenium arch.  This meant an unbelievable amount of energy was expended in physically walking up and down what seemed like miles of staircase, humping delicate pipework, organ chests, supports, etc.  The second obstacle was that the main cable and wind line to the console ran down the side of the proscenium arch and could not be got out in tact...resulting in the need to cut the cable from the console.  The third obstacle was a steep spiral staircase into the chamber area proper; this meant that the large (and extremely heavy) components could not be brought down from the chambers.

Work commenced immediately the theatre emptied and the first task was to bring all the pipework down and lie it in sets in the aisles of the stalls area.  The rest of the team split into two lots of three; the first began unsoldering the hundreds of wires on the relay spreaders and unscrewing roller switches and the second began what they thought was the easy job of cutting the main cable and marking each end of every wire...they were cross-eyed and 'backached' after five hours of that job (and only a third of the cable done!).  We worked straight through the Saturday night, all Sunday, stopping after midnight for a well earned rest.  A couple of weary bodies were left to sleep in the theatre and safeguard the organ while the rest of the team returned home to organise transport, etc., and return later in the week to continue the dismantling.  Once we had removed the easy (!) parts, we were left with the bulky items which were too heavy and awkward to go down that wretched spiral staircase mentioned earlier.  These consisted of the big relay units and the two five rank chests.  So...we decided that if they wouldn't go down, then they would have to go up...onto the roof of the theatre and over the top!  Yes, we did remember to attach the ropes before we pushed the various bits over the top, and everyone mustered up every last ounce of what little energy they had left to hang on as these parts descended gently onto an awaiting lorry.  More than a few prayers were said as we bade farewell to each component, hoping that, when the rope went slack, we were greeted by a happy smile from the tiny figure way down in the street below us, rather than a heap of smashed timber!

The console, by now separated from its cable and wind line, was hauled over the orchestra rail and nudged across the carpets and up the aisles to be lifted onto the lorry to join sundry pipework and trunking.  The bulk of the pipework and the percussion unit left for the North East during the Saturday of the first weekend and we followed on the Sunday, our last full day available, with the few remaining parts being loaded to join their related units in Crook.  After the last parts had been loaded, we had a final look around to make sure that we hadn't left anything behind, said farewell to the very cold and deserted auditorium, jumped into the lorry and headed for home.  While we had been slaving down in Bradford, other stalwarts at the receiving end in Crook had been offloading the seemingly endless trail of organ parts and stored them in a garage and some empty cottages which had been loaned to us as temporary storage.  We had done it...a totally exhausting experience, yes, but it was now behind us; we had the organ safe in its new home area.  Surely nothing ahead of us could possibly be as time consuming and tiring as that which we had just experienced?!