Editing Sherborne Abbey (section)

== Organ ==
[[File:The organ, Sherborne Abbey 01.jpg|thumb|The organ in the north transept]]

The abbey's organ, located in the north transept, was installed in 1856 by [[Gray and Davison|Gray & Davison]] to some considerable acclaim.<ref name="organ1">{{cite news|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=11 March 1856|title=The New Organ|newspaper=Sherborne Mercury|location=Sherborne|url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000411/18560311/046/0002|url-access=subscription|access-date=26 September 2015|via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref> It was completely rebuilt in 1955 by [[J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd]] with a remote console in the crossing and a large specification. In 1972 John Coulson of Bristol again altered the organ by adding a neo-classically styled 'positiv' in place of the choir manual, some big mixtures on the great, solo mutations on the choir, and increased wind pressures throughout. By 1987 an increasing lack of reliability led to a proposed scheme by Bishop & Son of Ipswich, favouring a return to the Gray & Davison past by almost halving the number of stops, returning the console to the organ loft – attached to the case – and altering the choir division into more of a bombarde to try to overcome the difficulties of the position of the organ. After just over twenty years it was necessary for the organ to be rebuilt again, and in 2004/05 Kenneth Tickell changed the tonal quality of the instrument, installed new ranks in the choir and swell divisions, and provided a new solution to the location issue by installing a new nave division, located under the west window.<ref name="Friendsbook" /><ref name="sherborneorgan">{{cite web|title=Sherborne Abbey: The Organ|url=http://dorsethistoricchurchestrust.co.uk/sherborneorgan.htm|access-date=2008-07-12}}</ref>

Despite these numerous alterations, much of the pedal division, some of the choir flutes and clarinet, all except the mixture on the great, and much of the chorus swell are original Gray & Davison stops.

===List of organists===
[[File:Memorial to George Edwin Lyle in Sherborne Abbey.jpg|thumb|Memorial to George Edwin Lyle]]{{Expand list|date=October 2008}}{{Div col|content=* 1717–1729 John Windsor
* 1729–1737 John Merefield
* 1737–1739 John Broderip
* 1739–1741 Arnold Power
* 1741–1776 William Thompson
* 1776–1845 Thomas Hyde
* 1845–1848 Richard Linter (assistant from 1838)
* 1848–1849 James Vincent (pro tem)
* 1849–1856 Organ unusable – Barrel organ used
* 1852–1854 John Hopkins Nunn<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Brown |first1=James Duff |author1-link=James Duff Brown |last2=Stratton |first2=Stephen Samuel |author2-link=Stephen Samuel Stratton |year=1897 |title=British Musical Biography: A Dictionary of Musical Artists Authors and Composers Born in Britain and Its Colonies | publisher=Stratton |location=Birmingham |language=en |oclc=977668399 |url= https://archive.org/details/britishmusicalb00brow/page/300 |access-date=29 March 2021}}</ref>
* 1856–1858 Henry Morgan
* 1859–1872 Edward Herbert (precise year of appointment uncertain)<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The Musical Times|url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3354475.pdf|website = [[JSTOR]]| jstor=3354475 |access-date = 2 March 2021}}</ref>
* 1872–1876 Robert P.C. Corfe
* 1876–1878 Henry J. Vaughan
* 1878–1889, 1895, 1900 George Edwin Lyle
* 1900–1901 James W. Burt (temporary during illness of Lyle)
* 1901–1907 Herbert William Chuter FRCO ARCM
* 1907–1914 Arnold Rudolph Mote BA BMus (temporary during illness of Chuter)
* 1914–1954 William Edward Wearden FRCO
* 1954 Benjamin Picton (temporary)
* 1954–1959 John L. Dussek MA ARCO
* 1959–1964 Frederick C. Fea (formerly organist of St John's Church, Torquay)
* 1964–1965 Peter Burness (temporary)
* 1965–1999 Julian Dams MA ARCO
* 1999–2002 John Padley BMus LTCL FRSA
* 2002–2006 Joseph Sentence MA BMus FRCO FTCL (formerly organist of St George's Minster, Doncaster)
* 2006–2019 Paul C. Ellis BMus ARCO GRNCM
* 2019–present James Henderson MA (assistant 1983–1984)}}

==== Assistant organists ====
{{Div col|content=* 1838–1845 Richard Linter
* 1983–1984 James Henderson
* 2001–present Peter Bray BMus ARCO LTCL DSCM}}