Magazine Articles

Reflections on Twinwoods by John Webb
	Once upon a time there was this fat, jolly bloke called Bob West. I saw him at Little Downham in the springtime and he told me that he was organising an organ gathering at "Twinwoods" in the autumn, and was I interested in putting in an appearance? In the summer I received mail and a flyer from Bob about the event and I put the date in my diary. On Saturday October 29th, accompanied by my little grandson Euan, we set off for Twinwoods. Twinwoods is the airfield outside the village of Clapham, just north of Bedford, that houses the Glenn Miller Orchestra Museum. (it has a website that you can look at if you want more details). The airfield buildings are up a long, bumpy track, about a mile long and when you arrive there are only a few buildings and a control tower to see; but that day the place had been transformed.
When we arrived it was quickly obvious that Bob had worked very hard to get as many people as he could to come to the event. He had circulated MOOS, and BOGA, the AOB and FOPS to get support. In one building there was Alan Pell and his wife Amanda, together with an assortment of the goods that he made. The piece de resistance being a thirty-note chip organ built into a beer barrel, the glockenspiel hammers came up through the top and they hit green Stella bottles that had varied amounts of water in them to make the different notes. The top also had a beer pump set up on it for added authenticity. The one he had was sold, but Alan told me he could make more if needed and the cost was about £6000!. He also had a table laid out with more of his wares for inspection and purchase and he and his wife were very much in evidence answering questions and engaging in a chat with their fellow enthusiasts.  Our friends from Little Downham were with him in the building with Richard Freeman, our 12 year old member enjoying himself with his hand turned organ as usual. I was able to acquaint myself with our friend John Smith who had one of the other buildings to himself with his Amateur Organ Builders. They had various organs on display as well as a paper roll music cutter doing its cutting wired up to a laptop. I took the Trueman 21 note to join various other Organ Grinders in the ballroom and we played in turn, largely for our own enjoyment, during the day. Outside in the woodland walk were several larger organs, along with their BOGA owners and Brian Wells was presenting his fine Gavioli in the area by the hangers. Other large organs were present and I understand one changed hands on the day for a considerable sum of money. Showman's engines were also present including the fine example Ex-Mayor, along with some miniature examples. There was catering, and a bar open all day, and it was obvious that Bob had worked very hard to put the word around and get everyone to attend. I would imagine that once the enthusiasm is generated everyone just wants to be part of the scene and it snowballs all on its own until the numbers that wished to support him could have overwhelmed Bob. Indeed, it was a credit to him that so many had made the journey to make the event so enjoyable. I could only stay for the Saturday as the grandson, Euan was going to be christened the next day and so we left the party and headed home in the late afternoon truly amazed at the support that can be generated if you show the initiative. All that remains is to thank Bob for the organization of this event and be sure in the knowledge that if his name is on the sheet another time it will be well worth the effort to attend.

Back to Magazine Article Menu