NOTES AND QUERIES

The arrival of the John Holt reed organ papers in the Archive brings back memories of my sitting, as a small boy, between old John Holt and my father in the choir of Harborne Wesleyan Chapel. John was known as 'Mr Dunlop' to us, from resemblance to a well-known advertisement, and his son as 'John Willy'. Another son, long before, had left his father and gone to Rushworth & Dreaper, but this was rather a sore point and not referred to. The pro- ducts were very artistic and musical; one for the old ' 5 IT' broadcasting station was demonstrated in the factory by Gilbert Mills, and other ones went to Dr Conway and Dr Sydenham Holmes; the magnum opus was a large four manual made in earlier days which turned up out of the blue when a new own- er asked for a visit. Old John went along, found only a minor fault, and when asked for an estimate remarked 'Give me a bit of firewood and I'll do it now' I The stop-list I cannot trace, but John told me that the original purchaser wanted the console designed on the lines of that then in Westminster Abbey.
Archives. 'Musical Directory for the year 1794, a curious and perhaps unique little book, in the Library of the Sacred Harmonic Society' (l) contained much interesting information including a list of contemporary organ builders. This library came into the possession of the Royal College of Music, but 25 years ago I was informed that there was no trace or record of this book and it must at some point have been lost or borrowed. I have now found that this, or an- other copy, was in the possession of J. T. Lightwood some fifty or so years ago and may indeed have been his property. Any clues ?

Mitchell of Exeter

The enquirer has been misled (2). I do not know the source of Sumner's statement that this was the real name of Paul Micheau, but this was not so. Neither was he a native of Germany who came to England about 1780 (3). He was in fact baptised at Barnstaple 23 October, 1734, son of Stephen and Eleanor Micheau, of Flemish descent; and he died 12 November 1824 aged 90 in Paul Street, Exeter. A portrait of him existed at Exeter but so far it has eluded my efforts to trace it. He repaired Tiverton 1776 (4), Otterton (5), Exeter Cathedral (6), and his other work included S. Mary Major and S. Mary at Arches at Exeter, and Etwall in Derbyshire (3); he also enlarged the Crang organ at Barnstaple. I suspect it was he, and not 'Loosemore of Exeter' (who had been dead a century), who was paid £350 for the organ at Dartmouth in 1782 (7) which is still there as to the case, if not much else.
Other builders enquired about include Bradbury of Manchester, Martin of Nott- ingham (both early nineteenth century); Ambrose of Sudbury (Suffolk) fl. 1820- 1874, who was also an organist and gave lessons to a boy named Ebenezer Prout who used to walk over from his home at Halstead; Solomon Wise, who did some work for Bishop; Dix of Whitby; and Henry John Corrie who took an organ over to Boston, U.S.A. and decided to remain there as an organ builder, specialising in voicing. Someone asks, too, who was the original builder of S.Nicholas, Durham.
In Volume One, No. 4 (October, 1977), an enquiry was reported concerning
Eccles in Kent, said by Sumner to be by Smith, from New College Oxford, rebuilt by Norman & Beard (sic) in 1953. I now have a voluminous file about this, with much correspondence. Sumner's sources I do not know, but the information is not accurate, and at least two organs are confused. In 'Freeman & Rowntree' (10) references on pages 75, 166, and 186 should be consulted. The story in summary begins in 1288 when oak Gothic folding gates were made for Balliol College. In I860 the old Balliol buildings were pulled down and the gates were acquired by the Reverend Dr. Thomas Harding Newman and installed at his house at Nelmes, near Upminster. Dr. Newman had been a fellow of Magdalen College and was a noted eccentric (11). In 1926 the gates were bought by the Georgian gallery in King Street, Westminster, and restored to original; they were then bought by a group of Balliol men and given back to the college. When this was reported in the 'Times' Mr. L. B. Page wrote to say that Dr Newman had also acquired a chamber organ 'by Father Smith, if I remember rightly' from an Oxford College.
In the many letters from descendants and acquaintances which are before me, the following points emerge. Did Dr. Newman get it from Balliol at the same time as the gates ? Or, did he get it from his own college ? In either case, what was its history ? His niece, Mrs. Croker, was insistent that it came from Magdalen, but her daughter pointed out that it might have come from his rooms there. Point as yet unresolved, and the only Smith evidence so far is Mr. Page's reminiscence.
One thing is sure - it is not the New College organ; for the organ was given by Mr. B. Harding Newman (who inherited Nelmes) to Canon Grant of the Gravesend area, who later became Vicar of Aylesford and placed the organ in the Mission Church at Eccles. Investigation shows that Cyril Fletcher Grant was at Gravesend 1874-5 and moved to Aylesford as curate in 1876, becoming Vicar in 1878. The Mission Church would be (as usual) the curate's pigeon, so we have an approximate date for the installation. Grant also in-stalled the Forster and Andrews at Aylesford in 1879. He was a Balliol man: could this be of any significance? A later Vicar wrote that the local tradi- tion was that the Eccles organ was once the property of King Charles II at Hampton Court - a clear spin-off from the Magdalen organ history. His organist gave the specification as it was after a rebuild in 1900. Apparently a twelfth was added then, and a Great Gamba moved to the Swell in place of a Vox Humana. New keys were introduced - the old naturals were white - the whole scheme was under the aegis of one Arthur Goodwin. The gilt front pipes, originally dummies, had at some date, thought to be pre-Eccles, been made part of the Great Organ. About 1920 the pipes were silvered, and the case painted black. A drawing of the organ was appended to this informa- tion. When Miss Helen Croker saw this, she commented 'How dreadful of them to have taken away the pictures of angels and spoilt the case; they seem to have made so many alterations to the stops'. The rebuild was by Walms- ley of Maidstone, whose successors, Harvey of Maidstone, tended it for many years. When it was at Nelmes it was tuned but twice, by Forster & Andrews. Now it is in Kelmscott in Western Australia. Selah.

N. B. Corrections to July article: line 8, for GG read C ; line 18, 'trap' for
'track' (apologies - Ed.).
Notes
(1) Hopkins & Rimbault, 3rd. Edition (1877) p. 156
(2) Sumner, The Organ 4th. Edition, p. 168
(3) Hopkins & Rimbault, p. 155
(4) Harding, History of Tiverton (1843), pp. 90, 135
(5) Brushfield, T.N. The Churchwardens' Accounts of East Budleigh (1894) p. 363 (reference is to the former Otterton Church)
(6) Chapter Act Book 14 March, 1767; 27 September 1768; 8 February and 19 July 1783. Also agreement by Mr Paul Michaeu 'to make the Great Pipes speak'.
(7) Musical Opinion, October 1887 p. 21
(8) Organs and Organists of Salisbury Cathedral (1972)
(9) Musical Opinion, March 1924 p. 611
(10) Father Smith (1977)
(11) Times 25 August, 1926; viz. also 18 August

Return to Index Page for this issue

Return to Reporter Index Page