IT seems like only yesterday that Harrison and Harrison of Durham completed their restoration of Huddersfield Town Hall's Father Willis.

But it is 15 years ago and during that time the instrument has had a lot of use.

More recently, maintenance has been taken over by Wood of Huddersfield who have just completed the second phase of an improvement scheme which started last year when some of the huge double-rise bellows were re-leathered. The recent work involved the stop control system which had become a touch temperamental.

David Wood says: " We have modified the drawstop solenoids at the console and installed a new control system at the soundboards. "There is also a new piston system which gives 16 levels of divisional memory, each one locking."

As many as 128 memory levels are controlled by the eight general pistons and borough organist Gordon Stewart will have 60 of those locked in for his own personal use.

A plus-piston has also been added enabling the player to move through the memories one step at a time and there is now a display to show which piston was last pressed.

The general crescendo pedal device has also been modified. The light display has disappeared in favour of a more modest single read-out giving each stage of contact, 1 to 32.

But the pedal is now programmable with four settings. Controls for this are now placed in a small drawer to the right of the console. As a result of these changes it looks less cluttered, but is otherwise unaltered.