About Us
The Back Story...
In the 1990s, The Village Experience was a popular visitor attraction to be found near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk here in the U.K. With its "bygones" theme the park featured lots of yesteryear items like a traction engine, sawmill, steam train, classic cars, and more.
The owners offered a home for some of our instruments which at that time belonged to our chairman, Terry Hepworth - one of the organs (Compton, ex Empire, Aldershot) having been installed at The Palace cinema in Gorleston (nr Great Yarmouth) a former cinema converted to a bingo hall.
A cinema organ was installed in the appropriately titled 'Regent Cinema' - a modern-day mock-up 1930s Art Deco style cinema building - which was part of the attractions at The Village. With 500+ cinema seats, projection box, and screen, the organ was featured daily as part of a program of events and over many years tens of thousands of people heard and saw our Compton-Christie theatre pipe organ played by a team of organists.
As part of a 'demonstration concert,' we told the story of cinema organs, played music and demonstrated the sounds of the organ, accompanied a short silent film, and took questions at the console post-concert. This was immensely popular with the visitors, young and old alike, many of the latter remembering the organs in cinemas back in the 1920s, 30s, and beyond.
In the early 2000s, a teaching studio was fundraised for and built on-site - this was to house the collection's Wurlitzer organ and would have provided a dedicated teaching and practice organ.
It was at this time that our Trust was formed and was officially launched in late 2000 at The Village Experience with all the organs and associated items going in the Trust's ownership.
Fast Forward to 2022
Since the closure of The Village in 2004, all the organ parts and other items have been safely removed and safely stored until such a time that suitable homes can be found to install them. All the trust activities have, naturally, been dormant throughout this time as well.
We are hopeful that one day soon we will be able to have a working cinema organ installed at a suitable venue and are always looking for such locations.
It is our aim to preserve as many cinema organs as possible, whilst presenting regular concerts and other events. We also wish to encourage new people, young and senior, to take a part in both the preservation and the playing of these unique instruments.
Terry Hepworth at the 5-manual Compton/Christie console at Fleggburgh (circa late 90s)
A YouTube video from a visitor to The Village. Start at 5:00 to see the Regent Cinema and the organs.
Wurlitzer organ undergoing restoration (circa 2003)
