In July 2026 organ restorer Martin Renshaw, helped by Dr Vicki Harding, gave St Matthew's single-manual organ a full overhaul, its biggest in thirty years. Martin knows the instrument well: he first saw it at the Methodist church in Minster-in-Thanet in the 1970s and brought it to Warehorne in the early 1980s.

The organ was built by Theodore Bates of Ludgate Hill, London, and Martin's work now dates it to around 1842, a few years earlier than previously thought.

The big surprise came from inside two of the largest pipes, where fragments of a theatre poster were found stuffed into the stoppers. The poster advertises a performance of Rossini's Stabat Mater at The King's Theatre, London, under the patronage of Prince Albert, probably in the summer of 1842. Nobody yet knows how it got there, and we hope to conserve it and put it on display.

A follow-up tuning visit is planned for late November or early December. Our thanks to Martin, Vicki, and Hilary Beaumont for hosting them.

Read Martin's full report, with photos, on the Warehorne Parish Council website.