If you wander down the lane that leads to the Church of St  Giles in Wimborne St Giles, particularly on a Sunday, you may be lucky enough to hear organ music. That’ll be John Radford playing. As the Director of Music and organist for the churches of St Giles, Cranborne, Edmondsham, Woodlands and the Gussages, John is a well-known figure in Wimborne St Giles where he has lived since 1992.

John was born in Wakefield. Music was always a central feature of life in his family – his father played the piano, his uncle and granddad were organists, and his relatives in Yorkshire played in their local colliery bands. One of these relatives was in fact booked to play his violin in the band on the ill-fated Titanic, but luckily for him his train was late getting him to the boat and it set off on its disastrous voyage without him.

At primary school two of John’s teachers played the piano well, which no doubt further contributed to his love of music from a very early age. He tells me that the first piece he remembers from childhood is a recording of the March from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’ with its compulsive rhythm.

The family also found themselves living next door to the organist who, when he retired, took pupils for piano lessons. When the eight-year-old John became his pupil, he saw the child’s potential and suggested a voice trial. As a result, John would become a member of the Wakefield Cathedral choir. This involvement with music continued through his middle school years when he was influenced by some very inspirational music teachers and a Head Teacher who was himself an enthusiastic follower of drama and the arts. All this finally led John to apply to Leeds University to take a Music degree. The rest, as they say, is history.

The organ in St Giles church which John now plays regularly is a Harrison organ, bought by the Earl of Shaftesbury for the church from the Durham-based organ-builders who had supplied the organ for Westminster Abbey. There is a strong musical tradition in the Shaftesbury family as it seems the great composer Handel himself was a friend of the family and visitor to the house, and some Handel manuscripts are still in their possession. The Church itself was splendidly refurbished in the mid 90s with services held in the school while the work was in progress.

John has seen many changes in the village over the 30 years he has lived there, but for him, one of the most important in terms of his work was the re-opening of the big house after refurbishment as this brought with it more requests for John’s skills at events such as weddings, christenings, renewal of vows and so on.  When I ask him to name a favourite piece of music he has to think about it a bit. Finally he decides on Bach’s St John Passion, which he sang many times in his youth as a chorister, because as he says it is such a rich mix of moods and emotions.

‘I can’t imagine a world – or a life – without music,’ he says. No wonder.