Kenneth Tickell

In 1976 he won an organ scholarship to the University of Hull, where his teachers included Simon Lindley; he graduated in 1978, by which time he had earned the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), and married Philippa (Pippa) James.

He was a careful businessman and built up over three years, during which he moved to a former baker's shop, before building his first complete instrument, which he displayed at the St. Albans International Organ Festival in 1985.

[3] Here he met John Rowntree, a consultant on many organ schemes in Roman Catholic churches, and the two worked together on several of his early projects, notably including his Opus 26, at Douai Abbey, near Reading.

In 1997 he co-founded, and was elected President of, the Institute of British Organ Building, and also completed a large three-manual instrument for the new church of St. Barnabas, Dulwich.

The Manchester organ was completed by Tickell's staff, notably Simon Brown (voicing) and Tomas Jansky (technical design), and was handed over in April 2017.