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DAVID WICKENS----------------------------------------------------------
Work on the comprehensive directory of British organ-builders continues - as no doubt it will for many a year yet. There are myriads of uncertainties in the received chronicle of organ building history, not least in what, where and when particular organ-builders flourished. A small fraction of these uncertainties can be solved with reference to contemporary records such as trade directories, census returns, baptismal, wedding and funeral records, rates books, etc. Take Young, for example, - if only because the firm of Maley, Young and Oldknow and Alex.Young & Son have occasioned columns of correspondence in Musical Opinion in years past. A compilation of the M.Y.&O. correspondence and a list of organs by Bemard Edmonds has been deposited in the Archive. A different source has suggested that Maley, Young and Oldknow were one-time Bevington apprentices who in later years fanned the parmership which flourished in the late 1870s and 1880s. The partners split up in the late 1880s, Matey moving to South Wales, Oldknow to Southampton and Jersey, and Young to Manchester - the latter being Alexander Young. This scenario does not stand up to scrutiny, Alex. Young having established himself in Manchester before even the establishment of Maley, Young and Oldknow. The trade directories and census returns have helped to unravel this problem to some extent. For instance, the London directories for 1864 to 1879 show Edward B. Maley, organ-builder, at 5 Wemington Smeet, Oakley Square; Somers Town; and Maley, Young & Oldknow, organ-builders, at Kings Road from 1877 to 1887. Young appears in (e.g.) the 1882 directory: "Young, Robert - see Maley, Young & Oldknow". Edward B. Maley appears in the 1871 census living at 5a Werrington Street: organ builder, 37 years old, born in St. Pancras; with a wife, Mary A., one year older, born in Limehouse, a son, Edward W., aged 2, and a cousin, James, of no stated occupation, aged 41. (Was this latter the J.Maley associated with South Wales?). Neither Robert Young nor Alfred Oldknow have known residential addresses, so they have not yet been found in the census. Turning to Alexander Young, the Census has tumed up a wealth of information. Here is a summary: Alexander Young, born c.l809, Glamis, Forfarshire, Scotland; in l84l he was living at 52 Caweil Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, described as an organ-builder (i.e. employed as such, probably by Samuel Renn); he had a daughter, Emma, born c.1839, and a son, David, born l840, by Emma née Johnson, who was about ten years younger than Alexander and came from Burnage (now a suburb in South Manchester). Much of the 1851 census for Manchester has been lost, so that we have to move forward to subsequent censuses for further information. In 1861 we find the son, David F., now 20 years old, is a letterpress printer. There is no mention of the daughter, Emma, but there are younger children, including William, aged 10, who by 1871 is described as William A., organ tuner. By this time Alexander is an organ-builder foreman. As William A. is reported as having worked for Edward Wadsworth before starting the family firm (see the obituary in Musical Opinion, Dec. 1917) it is reasonable to assume that this was for whom Alexander was foreman. William A. established the family firm in 1872, in Vine Street, Manchester. He was joined by his father the following year, and a move was made to Eldon Street in 1875. The firm is always referred to as Alex. Young & Son. There is clearly no connection with Maley, Young & Oldknow. The evidence of the instruments confirms this: the work of Alex. Young & Son is firmly rooted in the Renn-Jardine-Wadsworth line, with not the slightest hint of a Bevington background. |