The Parish Church of St. Clement

St Clement's, the Living Church in the Ancient Town of Sandwich Kent

The Nicholson Organ St. Clements Church, Sandwich

The Nicholson Organ

The organ was built by Nicholsons of Malvern and the inaugural recital was given by Dr Peter Hurford in June 1995. It is a versatile instrument enabling music from all periods of the organ repertoire to be convincingly interpreted as well as providing effective accompaniment to the liturgy.
The instrument is located in the South Aisle and housed in a fine case of mainly English oak that was designed by Anthony Hall.
The majority of the pipework is not new, but taken from the previous 1950 three manual instrument built by A E Davies and Sons of Northampton and housed at the West End of the North and South Aisles.

The organ has two manuals and pedals with a total of 20 stops and is played from an attached console with modern electronic playing aids. The action to the keys and drawstops is totally mechanical.

Organ Specifications: >>

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St. Clements Church Organ

Above: Celebration Concert to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Nicholson Organ - 25th July 2015
From left to right
Revd Canon Mark Roberts
Andrew Moyes - Managing Director of Nicholsons:
Dr David Flood - Organist and master of the Choristers - Canterbury Cathedral;
John Perkins – Director - Becker Ensemble;
Julian Sampson – Director of Music - St Clement’s Church.

The church supports an annual organ recital series giving the opportunity for established national and international recitalists to play this fine instrument.

In recent years these has been given by:

  • Malcolm Archer - St Paul's Cathedral (2006)
  • Peter Wright - Southwark Cathedral (2007)
  • Martin Baker - Westminster Cathedral (2008)
  • James O’Donnell - Westminster Abbey (2009)
  • Stephen Cleobury - Kings College Cambridge (2010)
  • David Hill (2011)
  • Ian Tracey - Liverpool Cathedral (2012)
  • James Lancelot - Durham Cathedral (2013)
  • Stephen Disley - Southwark Cathedral (2014)
  • David Flood (Canterbury Cathedral) and Ian Tracey (Liverpool Cathedral) in concerts marking the 20th anniversary of the organ (2015)
  • Roger Sayer - Director of Music at The Temple Church, London (2016)
  • Daniel Cook - Westminster Abbey and Organist designate of Durham Cathedral (2017)
  • Adrian Bawtree – Second Assistant Organist at Canterbury Cathedral and acting Cathedral Organist Rochester Cathedral (2018)
  • Charles Maxtone - Smith, Organ Scholar at New College Oxford (2019
  • Adrian Bawtree - Director of Music & Organist at Rochester Cathedral (2022))

Organ Specifications

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Organ recitals:

see our News & Events webpage

Who to Contact

Any enquiries should be addressed to
The Director of Music
Julian Sampson - 01227 721697 or by email to: sampson@supanet.com

With Robert Tapsfield as Assistant Organist


Music for this month >>

Music List

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