Grenville Jago

Thought I'd better update this thread. After consulting with Maurice Eglinton (Hele), Phillip Liddicoat (ex organist of St Andrew's, Plymouth) and Lance Foy (present keeper, if I may use the term, of the Tavistock Methodist Church organ), I have discovered the chronology of the organ of the Dockyard Church of St Lo, Plymouth . In 1941 the St Lo church was bombed and the organ (lll/P Hele) destroyed. Church was demolished. The 'church' moved out of the Dockyard to St Chad's, Devonport. In 1957 the 'church' moved back into the Dockyard where a SECOND building was dedicated to St Lo. A new lll/P organ was built by Hele for this church c1958. This is the organ detailed in the NPOR. This is the organ that was subsequently sold to Tavistock Methodist Church around 1987 when the St Lo church was finally made redundant. The organ was stored on MOD property at Saltash in Cornwall before being rebuilt at Tavistock c1992/3 However, the spec. of this organ in the NOPR is not the same as the present organ, rather it (NPOR) is probably the original proposed spec. as drawn up by Hele and Co. The Pedal organ never had a 32' Sub Bass stop (Maurice Eglinton confirms this). It is now a 16' Violone. The Choir organ was reduced by 3 stops (Open Diapason 8', Principal 4', Tromba 8'); there is a reversible thumb piston labelled 'Oboe 8' which lies below the Great manual, that draws the Contra Fagotto 16', Unison Off and Super Octave couplers, a 'Second Touch Cancel' stop key, and a Division labelled 'Unenclosed' containing the following stops - Open Diapason 8', Principal 4', Tromba 8' and Octave Tromba 4'. Indeed, when looking at the pipework which is in a gallery behind the altar, there does appear to be a Diapason and a Reed visible. There is only one expression pedal. Unfortunately there was something taking place in the church at the time and I never got to try it out, just got to confirm the spec and note the changes. Lance Foy confirms extensive borrowing and extensions which I believe; in fact, looking at the stoplist, could one think anything different? Many thanks to all who assisted me, in particular 'Vox Humana' who PM'd me on several occasions. Thank you all

I think that you will find this one even smaller! http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=R00813 Mind you, the survey was done in the 1950s and although I have been through there lately I was unable to get access to the chapel to verify the above.

You, Sir, are a star. I have also looked through the P & D Organists 'magazine' but just like the Dockyard Church web page, I missed this one as well. I really must clean my glasses! In fact, in the same source, (2001 ed.) the St Lo organ is reported as being bombed; this is recorded as the lll/P so this is where the confusion lies. There are still some more anomolies with this organ which I am trying to resolve: why is there an 'Oboe 8' reversible thumb piston when there is no Oboe on the organ, and why is there a 'Double Touch Cancel' stop tab, a mechanism usually found on the cinema organ. There is no mention of this in the original spec. Never mind, this is what makes it so interesting and to have an interaction with a nation-wide knowledge bank is something else. Truly inspiring. As soon as I can get more information I will post again. Many thanks

Greetings O Wise Ones. I am researching an organ and I need a little help. My friend Google offers no information whatsoever, and the NPOR is not particularly forthcoming; in fact it is extremely user unfriendly. The organ in question is the 3M/P Hele of the Devonport Dockyard church of St Lo, which I believe no longer exists. That in itself raises a question. Was the church destroyed in the Plymouth blitz, or was it just the existing organ that was destroyed. The NPOR entry http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N10449 is dated 1957 and states that the organ was 'transferred elsewhere'. Was this organ built to replace the organ lost in the blitz? When was St Lo demolished? This 3M/P was reputed transferred to the Methodist Church in Chapel Street, Tavistock. The Russell Street Methodist church in Tavistock, of which I was a member and part time organist from around 1960-61, was in the throes at that time, of being amalgamated with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Chapel Street church being the ultimate meeting place. At that time a 'new' organ was being built by a Rodney Pearce of Saltash, Cornwall, for the Chapel Street church, and I assumed, at the time, that the existing Dicker organ was being rebuilt and a few 'bells and whistles' added. What we ended up with was a 2M/P with a detached stop key console of some 30 speaking stops (on paper) a lot of which were 'prepared for', which I played for the inaugural (dedication) service. What happened to this organ in years to come I do not know, but I was told that it had 'fallen to pieces'. Some time in the 1990s the St Lo organ replaced the Pearce organ (dates??); the 32' Sub Bass on the Pedal organ was replaced with a 16' Violone. Now, the church archivist tells me that the organ was built in 1957 (was it really?) and had been kept in storage for over 30 years at great cost. He's not really an organ man. As you can see I am totally bewildered as to the whose?, whys? and whens? of the above. Someone on this forum must know something as I have been lurking for several years now and I suspect that one or two of you come from this part of the country (SW). Thank you in advance.