ST Mark’s Church in Upper Hale is pulling out all the stops to save its 103-year-old pipe organ ‘Emily’.

The church urgently needs to find £23,000 for a complete overhaul of its Edwardian organ, affectionately named after its original benefactor Emily Mangles.

More than £2,000 has already been raised with the help of a Sponsor a Pipe appeal launched before Christmas.

But many of the organ’s 524 pipes are still available to sponsor for donations of between £15 and £60. And St Mark’s is now offering the chance to sponsor one of Emily’s 10 stops for a recommended donation of £100.

Reverend Lesley Crawley said: “A stop, when it is pulled out, allows pressurised air to a set of organ pipes.

“Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; some can be ‘on’ admitting the passage of air to certain pipes, while others can be ‘off’ stopping the passage of air.

“There are 10 stops on Emily, one of which will be renamed The Herald in thankfulness for the help that Sir Ray and the paper have given us, so there are nine up for grabs!”

St Mark’s Church was built in 1883 by the people of Hale, then-the poorest parish in the Diocese of Winchester, and Emily was added in 1912.

However, after a century of service the organ needs to be dismantled, its leatherworks replaced and warped wooden parts machined while the pipes also need to be cleaned and a handful of them replaced, before finally being re-tuned.

Emily is now used very rarely, but once she is restored St Mark’s hopes the organ will once again be available for community events and concerts, and for children to practice.

Pipes and stops can be sponsored anonymously or not, and can be dedicated to loved ones.

Sponsors will receive a certificate and the church will display all the names and notes that all the sponsors write on a ‘Sponsoring a Pipe’ manuscript.

There will also be a celebratory concert once Emily has been restored to which all those who have sponsored a pipe will be invited.

As well as £100 for a stop, the requested donations for sponsoring a pipe are: 4’ pipe – £15; 8’ pipe – £30; 16’ – £60.

Anyone wishing to sponsor a pipe should send a note of who they are dedicating the pipe to along with a donation (payable to The Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale PCC) to St Mark’s Church, Alma Lane, Farnham, GU9 0LT. Donations can be increased through the Gift Aid scheme.

For more information, call Rev Lesley Crawley on 01252 820537 or email [email protected].