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Blackheath Birmingham Urc


basdav

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I have just driven past the URC church in Blackheath and have noticed it is up for sale, I have never been able to get into the church to see the organ and cannot find it on NPOR. All I know is that it is or was a small 3 manual formerly from a private residence, does anyone have details of this instrument? I fear it could well be another candidate for Ebay.

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  • 4 weeks later...
I have just driven past the URC church in Blackheath and have noticed it is up for sale, I have never been able to get into the church to see the organ and cannot find it on NPOR. All I know is that it is or was a small 3 manual formerly from a private residence, does anyone have details of this instrument? I fear it could well be another candidate for Ebay.

 

I wonder (as I wander) whether this might have any connection to the organ formerly owned by Percy Whitlock? In 1938 he bought a large 3 man from a retired tea-planter, Edmund Haythorne, for £50 and spent the next 5 or 6 years trying to rebuild it in his cottage on Wimborne Road in Bournemouth. He never succeeded in making it play, though, and eventually sold it to Alan Hickling in 1945. Hickling installed the instrument in Long Lane Methodist Church, near Quinton, Blackheath, West Midlands. Would this match the location of the URC church you drove past?

 

If it is for sale maybe it should be spared the demolitioner's ball and preserved in a safer place? Whitlock's organ - originally assembled in Calcutta - incorporated pipework by Fonseca, Hope-Jones, Ingram, Gray and Davidson and Willis.

 

Malcolm Riley

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I wonder (as I wander) whether this might have any connection to the organ formerly owned by Percy Whitlock? In 1938 he bought a large 3 man from a retired tea-planter, Edmund Haythorne, for £50 and spent the next 5 or 6 years trying to rebuild it in his cottage on Wimborne Road in Bournemouth. He never succeeded in making it play, though, and eventually sold it to Alan Hickling in 1945. Hickling installed the instrument in Long Lane Methodist Church, near Quinton, Blackheath, West Midlands. Would this match the location of the URC church you drove past?

 

If it is for sale maybe it should be spared the demolitioner's ball and preserved in a safer place? Whitlock's organ - originally assembled in Calcutta - incorporated pipework by Fonseca, Hope-Jones, Ingram, Gray and Davidson and Willis.

 

Malcolm Riley

 

Plausible, and actually in the same road, but the church with Whitlock's former organ in it is about a mile further up the road out of Blackheath. About five years ago I dropped some publicity off there (The Whitlock organ church) and the organ was still there, but not used at all and I believe unplayable as the blower's disconnected. The church has a small and loyal congregation who at that time were keeping the church in immaculate condition... and although they have no use for the organ it is sitting there quite safely, for now...

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Hmm, I don't suppose it would fit under a 12'7" ceiling?

 

If not, we could follow local custom to its logical conclusion and mount the whole damn lot en chamade.

 

We'd only need a trolley: it can't be more than a mile to move it and most of that downhill.

 

Ooooooh, hadn't thought of that... :( It's a not particularly high 'two-storey' church, but the organ is up on the gallery and its former home was a house, most of which don't have particularly high ceilings... The church may need the hole it would leave plugged though!! Mmmmmm.... :blink: Also, the URC which this thread is about isn't a tall building, so that organ may not be too tall either. (Which'll do for your west end division if you end up with both!) Perhaps you should phone Scriven's and ask if we can have a look inside.. (!?)

 

A trolley with incredibly good brakes, that's quite a steep hill. :unsure:

 

P.

 

You'd be required to learn lots of Whitlock... :huh:

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A trolley with incredibly good brakes, that's quite a steep hill. :(

Yes but we'd need to get a bit of speed up cos we'd lose quite a bit getting through the trees on the roundabout at the bottom and then there's still a bit of a rise to the church on the other side.

P.

You'd be required to learn lots of Whitlock... :unsure:

No, you'd be required to come and play lots of Whitlock.

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Yes but we'd need to get a bit of speed up cos we'd lose quite a bit getting through the trees on the roundabout at the bottom and then there's still a bit of a rise to the church on the other side.

P.

 

No, you'd be required to come and play lots of Whitlock.

 

 

If this is the instrument I'm thinking of, there's pneumatic tubing in vast quantities going round bends in all directions. The instrument looked (in the photo I saw) like a cross between a harmonium and and a giant stack of plates each piled high with spaghetti. Be warned: re-erecting pneumatic actions (even well-made ones) involves major headaches for anyone brave/foolhardy enough to take them on!

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