Selby Abbey celebrates the restoration of the William Hill organ

Selby Abbey Organ

The organ at Selby Abbey in Yorkshire was built in 1909 by William Hill and Sons and is considered to be one of the finest romantic instruments in Britain. By 2012 the instrument had become unreliable and in need of a complete restoration. Thanks to an appeal this has now been possible and the organ's return to complete health will be celebrated with a gala on 9 September 2016.


The Royal Northern Sinfonia with conductor Adrian Partington and organists John Scott Whiteley and D’Arcy Trinkwon will perform a programme which includes music by Elgar, Jongen and Guilmant. John Scott Whitely was a pupil of the Italian organist Fernando Geminiani whose recordings on the Selby Abbey organ in the 1960s rightly made the instrument famous.

The organ case is the work of William Hill's grandson, Dr Arthur Hill and Oldrid Scott, son of the architect George Gilbert Scott. Arthur Hill was trained as an architect in the office of George Gilbert Scott.

Full information from the Selby Abbey website (PDF).