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2049 Meetinghouse Way, West Barnstable, MA 02668
Mander Organs was founded by Noel Mander in 1936. He had trained with a small London organ builder who encouraged him to set up his own workshop. After the war, there was much work to be done in repairing bomb damaged organs and churches and Noel Mander worked closely with the London Diocese to provide organs for churches with limited funds. In 1947 he moved the firm into a redundant Victorian school in East London which has remained the home of the company ever since. By the late 1950s he had built up the firm to become one of the major organ builders in England. His crowning achievement was the rebuilding of the Grand Organ at St. Paul's Cathedral in London which was completed in time for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations in 1974. In 1978 he was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by HM Queen Elizabeth II. He retired in 1983 passing the company to his son John Pike Mander.
The two decades since Noel Mander's retirement has seen a shift in emphasis of work from the rebuilding of instruments to mostly new organs, all over the world. Instruments have been built in Australia, the Arabian Gulf, Scandinavia, Japan, North America and England. Rebuilding work has not ceased altogether however. During 2002/3 the organ at the Royal Albert Hall in London was rebuilt, this instrument being the largest in the UK.
Every instrument built by Mander Organs is uniquely conceived for the location for which it is intended. No two churches are the same or have the same requirements. But some commissions present particular challenges to our ingenuity and this was certainly the case here at the Meeting House. An organ had to be designed which would suit a building for which an organ had never been envisaged. But when installed, it had to look as if building and organ had always belonged together. Tonally it had to match the expectations of those who know what to expect from the visual appearance of the organ, whilst meeting the liturgical needs of Sunday worship. Finally, it had to satisfy these criteria within the limited space offered by the only location in the Meeting House which could be considered for the organ. The next 100 years will decide how well we rose to the challenges, but we can already say that rising to them at all was rewarding to us all today.
John Pike Mander
Managing Director
Mander Organs Ltd.
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