staff of a West Devon village church were baffled when their previously well behaved organ suddenly developed a fault.

On investigation it transpired a very quiet church mouse managed to briefly silence Horrabridge’s St John the Baptist organ - completely unseen.

The first sign anything was wrong was when organ keys kept sticking and would not play a note.

The tuner was called and he discovered the rodent had nested inside the organ on top of the inside of one of the two keyboards, causing several keys to stick and an unnerving shriek, or possibly a squeak!

Elaine Hay, Horrabridge Parochial Church Council treasurer, said: ‘The organ was over due to for tuning and this year one of the keys started to stick when pressed, causing an awful shriek.

‘When the tuner came in he discovered the cause was nest that had been built in the organ by a mouse.

‘The mouse might have been a famed quiet church mouse, but the effect certainly wasn’t. Sadly we may have had to make the mouse homeless to sort the problem.’

Organist David Crocker said: ‘We didn’t have any idea there was a mouse in the organ. The first clue was when a key on the upper key board didn’t respond with the sound expected. It usually produced the super octave notes. So, when I played I got round the problem, by adapting my playing and hoping no one noticed in the congregation. Despite this, all went ok for a few services, until the organ builder attended and cured the problem.’

Organ Builder Michael Farley said: ‘Several keys were sticking because of nest material jamming the works.We had to partially dismantle the keyboard to clear it away and ‘hoover’ it out, then all worked well again.’

He said the church had a ‘particularly fine’ pipe by Hele of Plymouth built in the early 1900s of the finest materials.