GrossGeigen

I suppose it depends on the number of pipes versus the number of stops argument. Wakefield, despite the straight Swell and Choir departments, contains less than three thousand pipes - I'm sure Manchester TH has a substantially greater number of pipes.

I'm fairly certain that the Champness Hall organ remains in situ, and "available", as I recall seeing details on the IBO redundant instrument listings recently.

Interesting to know about this large number of poor organs in Scotland. James Conacher had no connection with the city of Sheffield, by the way. He dissolved his partnership with brother Peter about 1879 (with ensuing court case "Conacher versus Conacher") and set up his workshop barely quarter of a mile from Springwood organ works.

Conacher's job number 1044 was a three manual instrument, supplied in 1898 for Trinity Wesleyan Chapel in the Fartown district of Huddersfield.

Just to clear this up a little. The metal pipework for this instrument was manufactured by F J Rogers in Bramley, the fluework being voiced by Norman Fitton. The reedwork was voiced by the late, gifted, Stephen Buckle. The 32ft reed, always prepared for, was installed in 1986, the mahogany resonators being made at Woods' former St. Andrew's Road workshop. Being too young to know the previous Abbott & Smith organ, MM's recollections are all the more interesting as everyone else who recalls the instrument speaks in equally approving terms. The fine Swell Fagotto rank can still be heard in St. Thomas's church in the same town (a fine Gilbert Scott building where, incidentally, A L Peace was appointed as organist aged fifteen).

John Scott Whiteley took a refreshing and uncompromising musical approach to "The Servant King" at the most recent Archbishop's Enthronement. The basic premise seemed to be "100% re-harmonisation" of the accompaniment.

The plasticine and chatterton compound repairs to certain reed basses were carefully preserved.......

It's good to see these updated. Perhaps for Tony Newnham's benefit (as I'm now unsure of the process of sending corrections to NPOR), at ST. JOHN'S, the bass octave of the new Nave Open Diapason is from the Great Small Open Diapason (this latter stop came from the Balliol College instrument which had been rebuilt by H & H in 1937, and is wholly on a chest) and the Swell Oboe is now back at 8ft pitch. At CRICHTON (I'm sure DT enjoys his trips there) the Swell Mixture is three ranks, 15:19:22, the "2" on the drawstop relating to the pitch of the lowest rank at CC.

I don't imagine it's too surprising that Lincoln (and York - apart from one obvious rank) don't "make it" too effectively down their respective naves, in view of the "parasitic" drawing off of tone by their vast lantern towers. The "ugly" observation is, I believe, a reference to the casework. I don't believe the case is without a certain elegance, and the Willis alterations in 1898 appear to me to have been beneficial to the overall proportions of the casework - just my opinion, of course. As for the Great reeds at York, my understanding is that the 1903/4 Walker 16 & 8 Posaunes survive, at least materially, on 7-inch wind ( there used to be a warning on the "do's and dont's" list for visiting organists as to how much more powerful they were away from the console). The 1903/4 Trumpet and Clarion were converted to 12-inch Trombas in 1916, and subsequently pumped up to 15 inches in 1931. I'm aware of the 1960 work, but recall (with alarm, it has to be said) reading Geoffrey Coffin's account of his 1993 work in which he stated that all the manual reeds had been re-tounged. Is it just me, but does the famous Tuba (described by Mr. Bicknell as "grotesque") sound very unevenly regulated in the recent York dvd?

Paul Hale, in his latest contribution to Organists' Review (St. Etheldreda's Church, Ely Place, London) asserts that J. F. Bentley, architect of Westminster Cathedral, "regularly worked with the organbuilder T. C. Lewis, most notably at Westminster Cathedral in the first decade of the twentieth century, where they installed a twin-cased Apse Organ..." I know that "old man" T. C. Lewis was still, shall we say, "dabbling" in Organ building in 1910 ( a good decade or so after his association with Lewis & Co Ltd effectively ceased) but is there ANYONE who can confirm who built the Apse Organ, Thomas Christopher Lewis himself, OR, Lewis & Co Ltd ?? If the organ was built by Lewis & Co Ltd, the job number should be plentifully teeped here & there within the instrument, even allowing for the (regrettable?) 1984 alterations. A 1910 Lewis & Co that I know well is, for example, job no 828. Furthermore, Paul Hale describes the Apse Organ as having a "strange" stoplist - I have never heard anything other than complimentary remarks regarding the "effect" of this stoplist. Any information appreciated !

Acoustics aside, the c.1867 Willis "Grand Tuba" at Huddersfield Town Hall would, in my view, give any other Tuba a good run for its money.

The 1980/81 console at Huddersfield Town Hall has curved jambs. Alas, it doesn't look as though the "Borough Organist" post, so successfully filled by Gordon Stewart there for many years, is to be continued. Shame.

I've yet to hear a better "advertisement" for a (in this case Swell) Vox Humana (and a sypathetically-adjusted "Tremolo") than Colin Walsh's two landmark (in my view!!) recordings at Salisbury for Priory on the early 1980's. CW clearly relishes its deployment in the Langlais' "Breve" and "Medievale" Suites, and the Tournemire "Ave maris stella" and "Victimae Paschali" improvisations. I have seen a couple of "Father" Willis organs possessing a Swell Vox Humana, sitting in a rack-board that has actually been "pricked out" for a three-rank mixture.

It is currently being prepared by Nicholsons for installation at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

This is a small three-manual, with an intriguing specification ( of which I have a copy somewhere) comprising 16 or 17 stops. A friend of mine visited the Klais works two years ago, and was told that the client had asked for no publicity about the instrument. Perhaps there will be more publicity after all.

Add to this Henry Willis IV, Peter Collins, Bruce Buchanan, and perhaps Kenneth Jones. Then some regular contributors to this forum: MM, Cynic, FF from darkest North Hampshire, and, of course, Mr. Blick himself. A practice organ would be needed (perhaps a Lammermuir) but some of the "tasks" would involve revoicing of certain ranks (eg. in the style of Cooper, Gill & Tomkins). I'm certain I would watch.

Harrison & Harrison look after it. There was an interesting write-up of this instrument in "The Organ", probably by Gilbert Benham in the late 1930's. There's a good photo of the then Hill console with a small keyboard below the bass stop-jamb for the carillon. I believe it was a fairly modest four-decker to begin with, despite the the CCCC 32-ft front. There was a subsequent write-up in "The Organ" after the R&D work.

St. Albans already has a 16ft Great reed (since 1962) - 8 & 4 ft reeds are being supplied in the forthcoming scheme of work.

I imagine Geoffrey Coffin is longing for that 'phone call. Perhaps they might acquire a redundant instrument for the nave (can't help thinking about the ex-Manningham Hill that has been taken) as Southwell did.

It just leaves you scratching your head all the more at the decision to sell the 1863 Hill from the Nave at the time of the tonally "surpressive" Walker rebuild of the screen organ in 1903/4. I understand the theory was that, with the console moved to the south side of the screen, any player could get a decent view down the nave and accompany from the main organ. Only last year I heard that this Hill still sounds magnificent in its home for the last hundred or so years at Radcliffe - depite being "nobbled" mechanically in more recent times.

I know a number of churches (and it is growing) that match this description - and it amazes me that in all these places there has never been a problem finding the money to pay for this "essential" equipment. In most of these places the pipe organ has been kept and is used for one hymn as a token gesture "to keep the old traditionalists happy". These churches now actually pride themselves on this gadgetry in a way that perhaps only a few decades ago they might have been proud of the organ, carving, stained glass etc that had been passed down to them. Finally, woe betide anything goes wrong with the organ as there is "miraculously" no money to do anything about it.

The new toaster boasts "Hill voicing".............

This might have you laughing like the Cadbury Smash robots, MM, but I did hear that the Leeds R.C. N&B was to be actually incorporated into an otherwise new Klais. The Bath Abbey approach.

Thanks for this, but the console you refer to was installed in the mid-1960's. I'm actually referring to the 1940 5-manual console, on which the drawstops for various prepared-for (and ultimately unrealised) divisions were provided. It may have been removed in the late 1970's, but under what circumstances I don't know. Thanks again for your trouble.

Anybody any idea what became of the 1940 Central Space console?