We are pleased to be able to hold a ‘live’ Heritage Open Day once again this year.  We have had to limit access to certain areas and we continue to recommend regular hadwashing / sanitisation together with the use of face masks for non-exempt adults when in close proximity to others to maximise Covid 19 safety for all visitors and helpers.

We welcome ANYONE to come along and say hello to the team at the New Victoria Centre, see and hear the north east’s only Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ:

• Find out what makes a Wurlitzer organ ‘Mighty’ and how it was developed from a traditional church organ

• Look inside the workings and see the organ’s 1,375 organ pipes varing in length from a fraction of an inch to 16ft  (part of the tour may be via a live video link for Covid security reasons)

• See the organ console at close quarters with its three manual keyboards, large pedalboard, 174 stops and numerous other controls and find out how an electrical engineer from Cheshire came to design this amazing musical powerhouse over 100 years ago!

• The theme of this years Heritage Open Days is “Edible England”.  You may, quite understandably, wonder how this connects to the Mighty Wurlitzer organ!  Well, in 1956 the Wurlitzer Company published the ‘WurliTzer Centennial Cookbook to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the company by Rudolph Wurlitzer.  The book featured recipes from the Wurlitzer family and company employees and quite a few of these recipes had origins in England.  We’ll have an original copy of the cookbook on show and copies of some of the recipes for you to take home if you want as well.

Call in any time between 10.00 and 5.00  –  Amission is FREE and light refreshments will be available

** PLUS:  Enjoy Stuart Wright’s Gavioli fairground organ which will be entertaining visitors outside **