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Small Willis organs


Aeron Glyn Preston

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There are still very many of these fine little jobs going strong and, thankfully, unaltered.

DW

 

Churches with a Father Willis 'Model' are lucky. I've played a handfulof them - St. Paul's 'Willis-on-Wheels', Foxearth and Great Horkesley (Essex), Groton and Dennington (Suffolk - the latter from a college in Tottenham - John Budgen said he 'chickened out of picking it up from Petersfield under Henry's nose'), St. Mary's, Edinburgh, Song School.

 

These instruments have been in my mind recently: our Cathedral here in St. John's, Newfoundland, was completed in 1884 (to the design of Gilbert Scott), but burnt out in 1892. The organ in the restored building was by Hope-Jones and Ingram (some pipework survives in the present Casavant), but no one has yet discovered what there was in the pre-Fire cathedral. An article by Stobie in 'The Organ' in the early seventies mentions that St. Thomas's Church considered getting an organ from Willis, 'the builders of the cathedral organ', but Stobie's enquiries to the firm elicited the reply that they had no record of sending an organ to Newfoundland. There are a few old pictures which show an organ lurking in the shadows, but a few months ago another came to light which gives a better view. The organ in this one looks very like a Willis 'Model'. Maybe the Cathedral obtained such an organ through a dealer acting as middleman. This was not uncommon in the colonies - for example, St. Paul's, Harbour Grace, has an organ bearing the label of Chappell, the London music dealer (it was probably built by Prosser of Westminster, an ex-Bevington man, I think). Or perhaps it came from elsewhere, or Willis's record of it were lost, or Stobie was barking up entirely the wrong tree (his article is rather full of inaccuracies). Maybe in the summer, I will get down to looking up Vestry minutes and see if we really had a Willis at one time.

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There are still very many of these fine little jobs going strong and, thankfully, unaltered.

 

We restored this one last year http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N09603

 

and we're currently doing this one http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi...ec_index=N18122

 

DW

 

 

Somewhere here I have details of a new 'model' organ - designed possibly by Stepehn Bicknell with a small but interesting stoplist (chorus, strings, flutes and a Cornopean - all enclosed) over two manuals (maybe even an 'either/or' set up) with some nice choices of case design - 'can't remember whether this was put out by Willis or Bicknell but for a village church it would be ideal. Maybe HW/DW can tell more?

 

A

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dated c.1902

So did Henry Willis 2 finish a design by Father Willis (Like St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin - an organ I used to play every day)?

 

The NPOR date is completely wrong I'm afraid: this instrument was ordered in 1897 and completed in 1898.

 

AJJ commented:

Somewhere here I have details of a new 'model' organ - designed possibly by Stepehn Bicknell with a small but interesting stoplist (chorus, strings, flutes and a Cornopean - all enclosed) over two manuals (maybe even an 'either/or' set up) with some nice choices of case design - 'can't remember whether this was put out by Willis or Bicknell but for a village church it would be ideal. Maybe HW/DW can tell more?

 

This was a joint effort between me and Stephen - an idea to raise some interest during the period after my taking over really, which he thought was a good idea. It's a simple concept: there are three-position lever handles for the stop control - 'up' puts that stop on the upper manual, 'down' to the lower manual and the middle position is 'off' - full mechanical 'duplex'.

 

The stoplist is a standard(ish) Willis recipe but able to be varied by the addition of an extra reed or two, having more stops out of the box (rather than just the Open Diapason or OD & Principal etc.. The casework designs were pure SB - simple, but elegant.

 

Unfortunately we never had an order for one - lots of enquiries, but no firm orders. The drawings are still on the CAD system if anyone's interested.......... :)

 

DW

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