Remember your organ's got a Womble connection

The Wombles look shocked at this most remarkable storyline

It is an extraordinary story that starts in 1908 when Frederick Jennings, a colliery cashier, bought a 50-year-old organ which had lain derelict in Hertford Castle for at least a decade.

The organ had been made in 1860 by Henry Willis, the foremost organ builder of the era – he built the organ in the Royal Albert Hall, and he had worked on organs in nearly all the country’s cathedrals, including Durham.

Mr Jennings saw the organ, which was stored in pieces in packing cases and sacks, advertised in the Musical Times. He went down by train to look it at and bought it on the spot.

But it was 20ft high, 12ft wide and 7ft deep – too big for his newly built house in Darlington.

So Mr Jennings, who had worked for Bolckow Vaughan since 1874 with his most recent posting being to Shildon Lodge Colliery, built a new one.

Meadholme in the Denes area of Darlington which was specifically built to house Frederick Jennings' massive organ. Picture: Google StreetView

It was Meadholme, on Orchard Road, in the Denes area of town – it is beside the “tennis dene”. Meadholme was ready in 1911 when Mr Jennings moved in, and a Durham firm of organ-builders moved the instrument in the following year, with Mr Jennings taking the opportunity of enlarging it from 26 stops to 37.

It became so well known that the renowned blind organist, Dr Alfred Hollins, stopped in Darlington especially to play it.

Sadly, Mr Jennings had fewer than ten years to enjoy it as he died in November 1920. According to his obituary in The Northern Echo, he was “for many years a prominent figure in musical circles, being an enthusiastic organist, and having a fine music chamber in his house, Meadholme”.

The obituary (above) said that he was the organist at St Barnabas’ and St Paul’s churches in Middlesbrough, at All Saints’ Church in New Shildon, St George’s Church in Northgate, Darlington, and also the First Church of Christ Scientist in Darlington.

Mike Batt's grandfather Arthur Jennings circled, perhaps when he was at Barnard Castle school. Picture courtesy Camden New Journal

His death left his son, Arthur, 23, with an enormous organ on his hands.

Arthur, who had been a sergeant in the First World War, was also a talented musician, able to play any song by ear, but he decided that an organ the size of a house was too much for him. As he had attended Barnard Castle School, he offered it to his alma mater for £1,600 to be paid in 16 instalments.

An Edwardian postcard of Barnard Castle School

The school accepted – this was a splendid instrument by one of the country’s leading makers and it came in an intricate case that Mr Willis had built for his display at the 1851 Great Exhibition. The organ was installed in the school chapel, and Mr Jennings was present when it was dedicated on January 30, 1921 – exactly 100 years ago.

Barnard Castle School organists try out the historic chapel instrument which was installed 100 years ago, front to back, Tom Chisman, Anna Forbes and Bleddyn Davies Picture: IAN LAMMING/BARNARD CASTLE SCHOOL

For the son of a south Durham organ-playing colliery manager, Mr Jennings’ life then took a couple of unexpected twists. He went to Spain with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children, Elaine and Marjorie, only to get caught up in the civil war.

They came back to Scotland, where Mr Jennings killed someone while driving drunk in Dollar in Clackmannanshire. He was fined £25, and banned from driving for one month.

There was perhaps a deeper problem as his marriage broke down because the next mention of him is in December 1941 when he was 44 and living in Belsize Park in London with his mistress, Jeannie Marti, Jeannie Marti, a pantomime artist.

She shot him three times and, leaving him dead, went next morning to the post office to transfer some money to relatives. Then she returned to their apartment and shot herself.

This shocking turn of events has recently been uncovered by Arthur’s grandson who is none other than Mike Batt, the man who found musical fame with Uncle Bulgaria and Orinoco in the Wombles. He was the singer, songwriter and producer for the litter obsessives from Wimbledon Common, responsible for such 1970s classics as The Wombling Song, Remember You’re A Womble and Wombling Merry Christmas.

Mr Batt (above) also wrote the huge hit Bright Eyes, from the film Watership Down, for Art Garfunkle, as well as being involved with Steeleye Span’s All Around My Hat and Elkie Brooks’ Lilac Wine – an amazing musical pedigree.

The Wombles preparing for Top of the Pops. Mr Batt usually performed as Orinico, the lead singer

Mr Batt, 72, has been researching his family tree and in August, told his local newspaper, the Camden New Journal, how shocked he was to find the family secret that his grandfather, Arthur, had been murdered.

“I get this impression that he was a bit of a fly-by-night character who flitted from job to job,” Mr Batt told reporter Harry Taylor. “He had been a cinema manager and then was a catering supervisor when he died.

“I think they might have been having an affair when he was in Scotland and he left my gran and they had run off and were living in Hampstead.”

Mr Batt’s mother, Elaine, never spoke of the scandal. “My Mum told my sister that they had been ushered into the front room and told that their father had been killed,” Mr Batt told the Camden New Journal. “In those days a lot of people were being told their fathers were being killed, so it wasn’t that unusual.”

For Mr Batt, who performed as Orinoco Womble, the lead singer and piano player, the discovery of his connection to an organist who was renowned in the Tees Valley and south Durham area explained many things.

“When I’ve been interviewed, people always ask me ‘where do you get your music from, do you come from a musical family?’ and my answer has always been ‘no I don’t’,” he said.

“But this must be it.”

Barnard Castle School organists try out the historic chapel instrument which was installed 100 years ago, front to back, Tom Chisman, Anna Forbes and Bleddyn Davies

THE concert tonight on Mike Batt’s grandfather’s organ starts at 7pm at Barnard Castle School, where the organ will be played by Anna Lapwood, the director of music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and by William Fox, organist at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Over the years the organ has been modified to suit a chapel because having been set up to be in a house in Darlington, it was said to “lack wind”. One of the overhauls in 1985 had it fitted with pipework from the redundant organ of St Hilda’s Church in Darlington.

With thanks to Harry Taylor of the Camden New Journal, to the JSTOR archive for access to a 1987 Musical Times archive about the history of the organ, to the Darlington Centre for Local Studies, to Ian Lamming for photographs of the organ, and to Dorothy Brenkley of Barnard Castle for the tip-off.