Stephen Bicknell

Stephen Bicknell (20 December 1957 – 18 August 2007) was a leading British organ builder and writer about the organ.

Bicknell was born in Chelsea. His maternal grandfather was an architect and amateur violinist, and his mother, Sally, was an amateur pianist. She married historian and former BBC executive Leonard Miall in 1975. His father was Nigel Bicknell DSO, from whom he inherited his eye for design. He was educated at Westminster School, Winchester College, and read Arts General at St. Chad's College, Durham University.

Bicknell's career in pipe organ building started with N.P. Mander Ltd. in east London in 1979. He worked with the company's founder, Noel Mander, and his son, John Mander. One of his projects was the rebuilding of the organ in the chapel at Mill Hill School.

He left Mander Ltd. in 1987 to work for J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in Brandon in Suffolk, where he worked on projects for Oriel College, Oxford, a one-manual chamber organ for the quire at Carlisle Cathedral, and the parish church in Kesgrave, near Ipswich. He returned to N.P. Mander Ltd. as head designer in 1990, working on rebuilding the organ in the chapel at St John's College, Cambridge, on two organs for Chelmsford Cathedral, and a four-manual mechanical-action organ Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan. He was directly involved with the design and construction of some of the most significant recent new instruments to be built in Britain. In 1993, he left full-time organ building to pursue a varied freelance career.

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