ARCHIVE
MICHAEL SAYER
The Archive Collection has now received the last instalment of the Hill, Norman and Beard records, in the form of the first two William Hill order-books.
One is the Elliot & Hill partnership accounts from 1829 to Elliots death in 1852; it includes the order for Dr Gamidges York Minster organ following the fire of February 1829 which destroyed the surviving Dallam material of 1654 (BIOS Journal).
The other volume is William Hills letter-book of 1858-61 and immediately precedes Thomas Hills estimate-book (Vol 2) of l862-77. Vol 1 commences with the brief Hill & Davison partnership dissolved in October 1858, when Davison joined John Gray, whose ledgers we already have from 1821.The first entry in Vol 1 is the special order for Queen Victorias Coronation in 1858, resulting in the temporary instal-lation in Westminster Abbey of the organ destined for St John Chester, and Hills difficulties with the Dean and Chapter in removing it form the Abbey - they having laid claim to it.There is T.A. Walmisleys design for St Jonns College, Cambridge where Hill spent so much time (having been diverted by Coronation Affairs) that Mrs Emma Hill assumed Davisons place as partner for a time; Cambridge work in turn delayed finishing a hired organ in Dr Worthingtons church, (Holy Trinity, Grays Inn Road) stimulating the oft-quoted correspondance, about his congregation laughing at the organ, and Hills diplomatic reply. Worthingtons conduct did not improve and four years later Hill had further cause to write to the Bishop of London about him.
The volume also contains Hills designs for the Liverpool, George Street Chapel (1840) and for St Georges Hall (l846), out-done by Willis. One can trace the progressive expansion of Birmingham Town Hall organ, and many others in the tran-sitional 1840s. As early as l859 Hill was recommending (to J.W.Fraser of Manchester) The need for a Pedal compass C to f for playing Bach, whilst more conservative clients were still demanding GG manuals with an octave of pulldowns; the last GG organ was for St Mary Sheffield in t855. For a brief period circa 1840 Hill proposed manuals from CC with pipes only from C, the bass keys playing twelve 16ft pipes of a two-octave Pedal keyboard.
It took till the mid-century for English organists to accept C manuals and C to f pedals (the "German Plan") in preference to a GG Great organ and a tenor c or tenor g Swell. There was no sudden revolution, but this volume makes clearer than any other that Hill (with his contemporaries) slowly evolved the Victorian organ from the Georgian over something like 1500 specifications:but what marvels he could design. Ulster Hall, St Pauls Cathedral, Crystal Palace, and the Royal Panopticon (1851) - perhaps the first cinema organ, with orchestral effects for light entertainment during magic-lantern shows. One can here trace the influence of visionaries like Eraser, Gauntlett, and the numerous forward-looking committees of chapels, whose designs could have stood against anything in Europe at the time.
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