Community efforts to restore the church organ at How Caple has uncovered one of the finest examples of its kind from the 19th century and also revealed a fascinating snapshot into the past.

There has been a place of worship on the site of How Caple church for over a 1,000 years. It is a gem of a church in the most bucolic of settings and, like many churches in the area, it has a wealth of architectural and historic features. The organ was gifted to the church in 1917 by Henrietta Lee from nearby How Caple Court.

When the Ross Gazette visited, finishing touches were being applied to the comprehensive restoration of the JW Walker Organ dating from 1856. To the uninitiated, JW Walker was one of the finest organ builders in London and the model in How Caple Church is one of the finest examples of Walker's organs of that period. Read the full story in this week's Gazette.