NOTES & QUERIES

Mr Harris also used the Great to Swell (4) on occasion, but says the organists didn't! He tells me that at Newton Burgoland Congregational is a Bates & Son 1-manual, given just over 50 years ago by John Compton in memory of his parents.

Postill of York in 1866 removed an organ from St John's, York which went to Cheltenham, and has long been superseded. Information is sought about this pre-1866 instrument.

Interest has been expressed in the organ by Hill & Davison used at the Coronation of Queen Victoria, and claimed to have been bought for St John's, Chester (5). The story as told does not quite square up with the earliest surviving letter- book of the Hill firm (now in the EOA) which I was privileged to consult at York Way before the War, just after the publication of Jocelyn Perkins' book on Organs & Bells of Westminster Abbey. I wrote to him on the matter, but he told me that he had found no more information than that in the book. Whether any more is now available at the Chester end I do not know.

Hill's letter-book is not of course a complete record of everything that went on in the business, but contains copies of such letters as the firm wished to have on record. The very first entry was an estimate for moving the Abbey organ in precisely the same way as they had done at the previous Coronation, and an early letter records an order for the organ at St John's - for which, incidentally, Hill was to obtain a case design in the 'Saxon style'. Later decisions by the Office of Woods and Forests - the relevant authority, precursor of the Office of Works - led to the installation of a temporary organ in place of the Abbey organ, with a 'long movement' and a Pedal Organ of six stops, including a Trombone. Nothing more seems to be known of the contents.

One wonders whether the Pedal was an example of Hill's standard 16.16.8.4.III.16, which he was to use with minor variations over the next twelve years or so. It could well have been, for it appears that the organ was made up for the occasion using material which the firm had in the workshop. The letter-book tells how the Dean & Chapter exercised a legal right to possess the organ, a statement confirmed by Perkins from the Abbey angle; and the firm wrote to Chester explaining the delay in sending their organ off because a part of it had been used in the Coronation instrument. In the end, the Chapter accepted a fee of £500 (presumably from the Coronation authorities) and released the organ. There are other letters apologising for the delay owing to the 'Coronation business*, for example to St John's College, Cambridge, but only the Chester letter specifically refers to the use of part at the Abbey.
The Chester organ was opened by ^Mr Gauntlet!, the Pedallist of London*, but the announcements of the festivities contain no statement that it was the Coronation organ; nor does 'H&R' (6) say anything about it, neither does Sperling (7). Musical Opinion for August 1895 gives the specification and simply says fbuilt by Messrs. Gray & Davison' - in fact, they had rebuilt it - but there is a brass plate on the organ which cannot have been placed there before 1895, giving the history up to the rebuild, which does say 'used at the Coronation ...'. There had been 3 pedal stops, including a 16ft Trumpet which G&D removed, and an octave coupler - did that make 6 stops to the writer in the Musical World?
Unless more information is available, it seems that Mr Lyon, executor for Parson Richardson who had bequeathed money for an organ, ordered an organ for St John's before the Coronation, and it was sufficiently forward to have part in use at the ceremony. Then Hill wrote promising to send their organ off as soon as he could recover the lpartt. But the Coronation specification is still unknown.

A correspondent sends me an advertisement from Musical Times February 1984, illustrating a 1779 Green chamber organ, and another from Sotherby's sale cata- logue for 22 November 1984 illustrating a 1790 England & Son organ. He points out that, apart from an ornamental top to the cornice on the England, 'surely easily demountable', the two instruments so far as can be seen from the reproductions, appear identical, even to the number and placement of stop knobs and the style of nameplate. He asks if this indicates anything about the builders.
It seems to me that it indicates something about the use of professional cabinet- makers by organ builders. This was probably far more common than has been generally realised. We know that the Norman family became interested in organ-building through the commissions they had as cabinet-makers for house organs. An official at Sotherby's says that he has seen 'several examples of this identical case in its bureau-bookcase-etc. form' and is certain that 'the finest organ cases were always bought in from the best cabinet-makers, who also made bureaux and hosts of other things*.
'England & Son' was of course John and George Pike. It has long been made clear that G.P. was the son of John, not of George (8) but many writers have not yet taken it in. This organ figures in Buckingham's Diary (9). It had been built for Sir William Chamber-Darling, Physician, at Oakes Park, Sheffield - he later changed his name to Bagshaw. It seems to have remained in its original site until the sale. It realised £19,000 and went to Canada.
David Wickens tells me that the 'Green* organ is the one written on by Christopher Stevens in an article which also deals with the England one (10). It was then at Twickenham. D.W. adduces several pieces of internal evidence that it is not by Green, and both he and C.S. attribute it to England. The plate is not an original Green.

(1) The Organ 4th edn. 511.
(2) M.O. 11/1900
(3) .O. 8/1888 502
(4( Reporter iv 1 10.
(5) Jocelyn Perkins, Organs and Bells of Westminster Abbey p.65 et seq; Organ A. Freeman II 146; A.G. Mathew XXXI 173.
(6) 1855 edn. 504
(7) II 42
(8) e.g., Reporter III, ,1 10.
(9) Organ LIII (210) 85
(10) Organ LIII (210) 13

Return to Index Page for this issue

Return to Reporter Index Page