Some of our piano jobs take us the length of the country. This one was on our own doorstep. Today we moved a six foot Yamaha grand piano into Banney Royd Hall in Edgerton, Huddersfield, ready for a candlelit piano recital there on Saturday evening.

Moonlight Rhapsodies by Candlelight

The piano is there for Moonlight Rhapsodies by Candlelight, a recital by the concert pianist Jonathan Fisher on Saturday 17 October. Jonathan is a collaborative pianist who works with singers and instrumentalists. He has played at the Leeds Lieder, Oxford Lieder and Harrogate festivals and at venues including the Wigmore Hall and the Bridgewater Hall, and he teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Huddersfield.

The programme follows the title, with music of moonlight, night and a little jazz to finish:

  • Beethoven: the “Moonlight” Sonata in C sharp minor
  • Chopin: Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1
  • Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23
  • Grieg: Lyric Pieces
  • Debussy: Clair de Lune, from the Suite bergamasque
  • Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, arranged for solo piano

Concert tickets give entry from 7pm, with the first half at 7.30pm, an interval, and a chance to meet Jonathan after the finale. VIP tickets add early entry from 6.30pm, canapés with paired wines and crémant in the interval. Full details and booking are on the Banney Royd event page.

A grand on loan from the University of Huddersfield

A recital like this needs a proper instrument, and the University of Huddersfield has loaned Jonathan a six foot Yamaha grand for the occasion. Yamaha grands are a familiar sight in concert halls, colleges and teaching studios for good reason: they are consistent, reliable and built to be played hard every day. A grand of that size also weighs the best part of a third of a tonne, most of it in the cast iron frame, and it had to arrive at one of the finest houses in the town without a mark on the piano or the building.

Moving a grand into a Grade I listed house

Banney Royd is one of the most important buildings in Huddersfield. It was designed by Edgar Wood, one of the leading architects of the Arts and Crafts movement, and built in 1900 to 1901 for W H Armitage, a Huddersfield accountant. It is Grade I listed, which puts it among the top few per cent of listed buildings in England, and the interior is a large part of the reason why: oak panelling, carved stone chimney breasts, and plaster barrel-vaulted ceilings worked with art nouveau foliage. The German architect Hermann Muthesius included it in Das englische Haus, his influential study of English domestic architecture, only a few years after it was finished.

The house has had a varied life since. During the Second World War it was a Civil Defence control centre, it later became a National Fire Service training centre and then a teachers’ centre, and it was restored as a private house in the 1990s. Today it is a family home and events venue, set in seven acres of grounds.

In a building like that, the approach is the same as on every listed job we do. Nothing leans on the fabric of the building, floors and thresholds are covered before the piano comes off the van, and door frames and corners are protected all the way through. We backed the van right up to the arched main entrance, and the piano travelled the way a grand always does: lid down and secured, legs and pedal lyre off, and the instrument over on its straight side on a padded piano board, strapped and wrapped, riding on skates across the flat.

Back on its legs in the function room

Once it was in the function room, the piano came off the board, the legs and lyre went back on, the pedals were checked, and it was set in position for Saturday.

A piano that has just been moved needs time to settle to the temperature and humidity of its new room, and a tuning done the same day will not hold. For a concert, the usual practice is to let the instrument settle for a few days and then tune it in the room as close to the performance as possible, which is one good reason to get a concert piano in early in the week rather than on the day.

What else is on at Banney Royd

The recital is one of a growing programme of events at the hall. The dates below are as Banney Royd listed them at the time of writing, in October 2026. Events change from year to year, so if you are reading this later on, check the Banney Royd What’s On page for the current programme. Coming up over the next few months:

  • Historic house tours with the owner, a guided visit to the formal rooms and the story of the house. These run through the year, and earlier dates have booked up.
  • Christmas parties from 1 to 19 December, with Christmas dinner, entertainment and a full bar, for a table of eight or ten or a room of 50 to 60.
  • Santa’s Jingle Bells Party on 6 December, with party games, dancing, and a gift and a letter from Santa for every child.
  • A Christmas Fair on 12 December, with a brass band, a choir, mulled wine and hot chocolate, Christmas stalls and Santa’s grotto.
  • A Burns Night Celebration Dinner on 23 January 2027. The piper is already booked.
  • Whisky tasting experiences for groups of six to ten, with Speyside, peated and wider Scotland themes.

Earlier this year the hall hosted an open house afternoon, a sold out Mother’s Day afternoon tea and an evening of mediumship, and an Edwardian dinner experience is on the way. Banney Royd is also a wedding venue, offering exclusive use of the formal rooms and gardens with preparation rooms and a honeymoon cottage, and it can be hired for private dinners, celebrations, corporate team building and speaker events. Current dates and booking details are always on the Banney Royd What’s On page.

Our thanks to the owners and the team at Banney Royd for having us, and for the photographs of the move. We hope Jonathan has a wonderful evening on Saturday.

Pianos for concerts, recitals and venues

Moving a piano for a performance is its own kind of job, because there is a date in the diary that cannot move. We have moved grands into Huddersfield Town Hall, worked around a film crew at Ripley Castle, and last month took a Steinway up five flights of a listed staircase for a concert at Wallasey Town Hall. Halls, churches, schools, colleges and historic houses all bring their own access problems, and the answer is the same every time: look at the route first, protect the building, and get the piano in with time to spare.

If you are organising a recital or an event and need a piano moving in, or out again afterwards, send us a few photos of the route and we will tell you honestly what is involved. You can read more about our piano removals service, or get a price straight away with our free piano removal quote. Family-run in Huddersfield since 1977.