Barrel & finger organ. The builder’s nameplate and label on the barrel read ‘J. C. BISHOP, Organ Builder. By APPOINTMENT TO HIS MAJESTY, Lisson Grove South, New Road, St MaryleBone, INVENTOR OF THE COMPOSITION PEDALS.’ It is thought that an old nameplate was used, Queen Victoria having come to the throne in 1837, some eight years before this organ was built, and the tunes include ‘God Save the Queen’. According to Canon Noel Boston the organ was converted from a barrel organ. In 1953 it was removed from Stanhoe Hall and installed here by W. & A. Boggis of Diss at the instigation of Ivy West, organist. The barrel mechanism is operated from the front. The oak case has five flats of gilt dummy pipes (4-3-7-3-4). Stop list: Open Diapason 8’, Stopped Diapason Treble 8’, Stopped Diapason Bass 8’, Dulciana 8’, Principal 4’, Fifteenth 2’. Tunes recorded in 1995. One barrel x 10 tunes, corresponding with the original handwritten tunelist pasted to the casework. Presumably ‘God Save the Queen’ was used as a voluntary - it would be difficult to sing to this version since both halves of the tune are repeated: neither should be.

References: Norfolk Record Office, PD338/13 Churchwardens’ accounts; Diss Express (17 Apr. 1953) p.6; Eastern Daily Press (5 Oct. 1953); Boston (1959); Boston & Langwill (1967); Ralph Bootman, ‘More organs from the house of Bishop’, Musical Opinion (Summer 1999) pp. 213-4; Turner (2002); NPOR, N06470.