Own Andrew's York Minster Organ Pipe

In the early 1830s, after fire swept through the Quire of York Minster, a new Grand Organ was built for the cathedral. The front pipes, as well as being functional, were highly decorated – the organ was a sight to behold.

Among these pipes was one marked CCC Oct Ped, sounding the lowest C of the Pedal organ’s Octave stop. It stood proudly in the organ case for 186 years, from 1832 until the organ’s removal in 2018, sounding for its first 71 years before falling silent in 1903.

When the Minster undertook its once-a-century refurbishment beginning in 2018, just thirty of these historic case pipes were retired from the instrument and sold at auction to raise funds for the £2 million restoration project.

Andrew’s family bought this particular pipe at that auction as a gift to mark his 80th birthday, and it has been part of our family ever since.

We’re now offering it for sale, and the proceeds will go towards something fitting in Andrew’s memory. We haven’t settled on exactly what yet, perhaps a small annual prize or a modest music competition, but the spirit is the same: something low-key and lasting, in keeping with how he lived.

This is a genuinely unusual opportunity. There are only thirty of these pipes in existence, each a small piece of nearly two centuries of cathedral history, and each with its own story. This one happens to carry ours.

If you’d like to make it part of yours, please add your name and the amount you’d like to bid for the pipe using the form below. It’s taller than we are, and quite heavy, so you’ll need to consider the price of shipping to wherever you are in the world as you’ll need to arrange this if your bid is successful.

Thank you for your interest in this little bit of York history. Good luck with your bid and we’ll be in touch once bidding closes.