Arts | Posted on September 2nd, 2026 | return to news

Dorset boasts longest serving church organist

Keith Watts, 88, who has been playing for 73 years said he would keep playing until he can’t do it any more or someone tells him to stop.

A Dorset organist who has been playing at the same church on the same instrument every week for 73 years says he has no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Keith Watts is thought to be the longest continually-playing church organist in the country.

The sprightly 88-year-old began his career at the rural Thomas a Becket Church in Lydlinch, Dorset, when he was 15.

He has only missed his two years doing national service and his wedding day – when he married at the church where he met his bride Pamela.

Even recent surgery on both shoulders only put him out of action for a couple of weeks, and during the Covid pandemic he brought a portable organ and played outside for the congregation.
Keith has also played at weddings and funerals throughout his career.

It is thought he has played almost 15,000 hymns at services in the church which is famous for its bells that were the subject of a poem by Dorset dialect poet William Barnes.

Keith lst his church warden wife Pam earlier this year after 65 years of marriage.

H said: “When I was nine I started to cycle to Henstridge to learn how to play and when I got good enough at 15 I began playing at Lydlinch.

“I lived in Lydlinch for 26 years then moved just down the road but never stopped playing.

“Ever since I was small I always loved music and used to play the accordion in a dance band and I also played the saxophone. But there aren’t any dance bands any more.

“I play the piano every day and I’ve also rung church bells and I’ve rung them here although they are not working at the moment because they need attention.

“The church has to raise more than £120,000 and we are nearly at the target – and after that the organ is going to be improved.

“There used to be other organists who played locally but there are very few now and no youngsters are coming through. They just don’t want to do it.”

Keith described his occupation as a carpenter and joiner, although friends say he is a master craftsman who has made numerous things for the church including tables, collection boxes and picture frames as well as undertaking many repairs.

Any fees he receives he donates straight back.

Keith said:”ave been lucky; I have fallen off a number of roofs over the years and I even fractured my back once.

“When I started there was a choir on in the gallery where the organ is and we had four services a month. And at Harvest Festival and Christmas there was standing room only.

“We’re down to three services a month now but get 20 or 25 people attending and there are still weddings and funerals.

“When the organ was installed in 1924 it replaced a harmonium and at first there was no electricity and people had to pump to make it work.

“It is a good organ for what it is especially as it is now more than 100 years old. I find that the louder you play the better the folk sing, but I do like a bit of light and shade.

“There are some hymns I’m not so keen on – ones that are a bit fiddly. But I like Love Divine – we had that at our wedding – and Judge Eternal. Some harmonies are my own, not what’s in the book.

“I’ll keep playing until I can’t do it any more or someone tells me to stop.”

A previous holder of this record, Joycelyn Hocking from Neot in Cornwall, who had played for more than 80 years, has now retired.

A church has stood on the site of Thomas a Becket church in Lydlinch’s since the 12th century and most of what is there now dates from the 15th and 16th centuries and it is Grade II-listed.