The Church of the Assumption, Harlton, Cambridgeshire

The existing organ before the renovation

One of the glories of Harlton Church is the magnificent organ case designed in 1847-8 by the Revd Osmond Fisher, Rector of Harlton from 1867 until 1906, which he installed in the church in 1869. Fisher was a remarkable man. Besides being a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, he was an eminent mathematician, archeologist and musician, and a distinguished Fellow of the Royal Geological Society. He was a pioneer of geophysics, and his work is referred to even today in the NASA training manuals for the Moon Ranger Project. During the 1840s Fisher had been Chaplain at Jesus College while the the chapel was being restored. He was strongly influenced both by Sir John Sutton, who was an authority on the history of English organs, and A W Pugin, whose architectural and decorative work was much in vogue at that time.

The case was designed by Osmond Fisher for the organ of All Saints Church, Dorchester. After he left Dorchester the organ there was superseded by a larger instrument, and the original case was returned to Fisher. He became Rector of Harlton in 1867 and installed the organ in the north porch of Harlton Church as a memorial to his wife. As there was not enough room for all the pipes to be fitted, the organ remains incomplete to this day. Access for maintenance and tuning purposes is both difficult and dangerous in its present position. Time and weather have led to a serious deterioration of the action, thus rendering the instrument unreliable and almost impossible to use.