South Island Organ Company

South Island Organ Company was established by Garth Cattle (from Osmond of Taunton) and Vic Hackworthy (from Hill Norman & Beard of London).

In the same year organbuilder Gerald Green (of Hill Norman & Beard, Lewes) joined the company.

This developed from a growing realization of the fragility of the resource in a largely unregulated market, and a conviction that the future of the organ was as a work of original artistry and craftsmanship.

South Island Organ Company operates out of its third factory built in 1985 at Washdyke Industrial Park.

On 22 February 2011, an earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand taking the lives of South Island Organ Company's foreman Neil Stocker and factory hand Scott Lucy.