Katwijk aan Zee, Dutch Reformed Andreaskerk or Oude Kerk (25/II/P, 1995)

The church

The historical church was in use till the end of the 19th century. At that time the church became too small and the decision was made to build a new and larger church, the so this church became known as Nieuwe Kerk (New Church). When this church was finished the old church (Oude Kerk) was sold to the fish factory.
Till the end of the twenties of last century the Oude Kerk was used to salt the fish and for repairs on the fishing nets. Unfortunately the Nieuwe Kerk with it's approximately 1.800 seats became already soon too small. The Oude Kerk was bought back from the fish factory and in 1922 the church was restored and enlarged to 1.100 seats.

The organ

In 1991 three organ builders were invited to advise the church what to do with the old organ by Standaart (1923, 22IIP) which was in very bad condition. All three advised not to spent money on this electo-pneumatic organ. An organ committee was founded, and Jaap van Rijn was appointed as consultant)

In 1995 the church was restored. At that time the committee worked out a proposal with two major points:

• The existing oak case should be used and when needed enlarged in style.
• The stop list including a detailed technical discription of the instrument as it should be build.

To build a mechanical tracker organ in the existing space was not an easy job, because the case is splitted in two parts by the roof construction. The "detached" console had to be installed in the center, facing the church. Use of an steel frame to carry the construction became needed because the existing case work and floor could not carry any large point-weights.
 
The contract was awarded to Van den Heuvel in May 1992. The organ was inaugurated on November 23th 1995 by Jaap van Rijn.

Internal layout

When working on the final drawings of the organ the decision was made to change the roof construction above the organ. The Zwelwerk (Swell) was placed in the middle above the console which is devided by a lever of the roof construction. The shutters open on each side allowing the sound to be spreaded in both sides of the church. The Hoofwerk (Great) is divided also in C and C# sides and placed on both sides of the console and Zwelwerk. The pedal stops are located on the far left en right side of the organ. In total there are six folding bellows, for each division two (C and C# sides).