A CHURCH in Bournemouth has hired a director of music who can truly claim to know organs inside out.

Jonathan Lane, a lifelong enthusiast for church organs, not only plays them but runs a business building and restoring them.

He has been made director of music at St Francis of Assisi in Charminster, where he has ambitions of making the church a “beacon for music”.

Jonathan, 49, has fascinated by church organs for as long as he can remember.

“I’m told that at the age of two I used to sit at the front of church and try and play along on the pew,” he said.

He trained as a communications engineer but said his life was changed the first time he took apart a piano to see how it worked.

After 25 years teaching and running choirs, and a year as master of the choristers at Londonderry Cathedral, he set up Jonathan Lane and Associates Pipe Organ Builders and Restorers at Poole’s Nuffield Industrial Estate, in 2006.

He runs a chamber choir, Ex-Andreas, which sings regularly in cathedrals, and heard about the post at St Francis last year. He was appointed in January but had already given his time to the church’s Christmas services by then.

“I’ve spent all my life in churches and I know they can be incredibly unwelcoming places, although they shouldn’t be. The first thing I noticed when I went to St Francis was people spoke to me. Because of that I felt attracted to it,” he says.

He hopes to create a choral tradition at St Francis, with new choirs drawing on the large local population and nearby schools.

“We’re really working from nothing and building up from that but I like that. The challenge is great,” he says.

In his life as an organ restorer, Jonathan has seen many church organs made redundant, either because congregations think an electronic organ is cheaper (which he insists is “short-sighted”) or because the churches themselves are sold off.

“If I had the money and hundreds of thousands of square feet, I would take every organ that’s offered to me.,” he said.

“I think there’s a general feeling that organs shouldn’t be scrapped, they should be saved if possible, but there have been some that have just been bulldozed.”

Unfortunately, the pipe organ at St Francis barely emits a note now. Jonathan’s ambition would be to replace it, but for the time being he is using a good quality Makin electronic organ.

“We are very keen that the church be seen as a beacon for music. We can be a really good resource for people in the area to make music,” he says.

Choral Evensong was sung for the first time at the church last weekend on the Feast of Candlemass. Extracts are at stfrancis-bournemouth.org.uk Stainer’s Crucifixtion is performed by the St Francis singers on Saturday March 16, 7.30pm, as a “come and sing” event.

Details at the website or from Mr Lane on 01202 959432, 07836 229025, or jonathan@jonathan-lane.org.uk.