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Organ screens - help, please!


Martin Cooke

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I could do with some help! Can anyone help with photos or drawings of non-pipe organ screens/cases? I just need some help to get the juices flowing for a small project I am engaged on. I remember in my boyhood, when I collected specifications, I seem to recall instruments by Rushworth and Dreaper (?) where there seemed to be organ screens made up of laths and strips of wood of different sizes. Perhaps it wasn't R&D. Any help with illustrations of this sort would be much appreciated. Again, as a boy, I visited Spalding church and played the organ. The console was in a rather lovely loft on the south side (with the drawstops curiously arranged in an unorthodox manner) - but I am sure that the pipework, on the north side was hidden behind a screen such as I have rather glibly described.

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https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=E01835

The second picture? Is that the kind of thing?

Described here https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N05143

as: "W face of limed oak paneled in a Georgian style (clearly later than front) to impost level, above which is a screen of natural pine lathes (clearly later still - possibly 1960s)"

If you don't know St. Mary's Lastingham it is well worth a visit. Both St Chad, and his brother, St Cedd, who is buried there, were Abbots of Lastingham. The crypt is completely magnificent and Mass is said in there every Wednesday morning. The church, above, was heavily restored by Pearson but, I think, is one of the most ancient and venerable places in the UK.  

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I don't know if I could top the suggestions made by Contrabombarde but here are some links to a few organs I could find on the Organ Historical Trust of Australia site.

Second Church of Christ Scientist

Melbourne

https://ohta.org.au/organs/organs/CamberwellChristSci.html

 

Residence of S Kaesler

Gawler

https://ohta.org.au/organs/organs/Kaesler.html

 

St Philip's Anglican church

O'Connor ACT

https://ohta.org.au/organs/organs/CanberraOCon.html

 

St Ninian's Uniting church

Lyneeham ACT

https://ohta.org.au/organs/organs/CanberraStNin.html

 

St Andrew's Seventh-day Adventist Church

Bundaberg

https://ohta.org.au/organs/organs/BundabergSDA.html

 

Masonic Temple

Brisbane

https://ohta.org.au/confs/Qld/Masonic.html

 

First Church of Christ Scientist

Melbourne

https://ohta.org.au/organs/organs/SthMelbCS.html

 

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Perhaps this is taking things to extremes, but the organ at Tunstall Methodist Church is hidden behind curtains and a breeze block wall. There is a small gap at the top of the wall and spaces at each end of the wall for sound to escape. It's a long time since I played this organ, but I do recall it sounding remarkably good. Hopefully I've attached a picture found on line.... https://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=G01250DSC7364.jpg

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The architect George Pace designed quite a number of organ screens in the 1960s and 70s, most of them being of the sort you describe. They often incorporated a variety of elements of different heights, widths and sometimes colours that can make them quite interesting to look at, compared to the more bland and regular examples from the inter-war period. 

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9 hours ago, John Robinson said:

Well it used to be.  Haven't they changed it to Leeds Minster now?

It seems to be trendy to adopt the title 'Minster' these days for some reason!

Leeds Minster is now the name of the former Leeds Parish Church. Likewise, the former Holy Trinity Parish Church in Hull was made a minster when Hull was “City of Culture.” It was a name change brought about by Archbishop John Sentamu of York. I always thought the title of minster could only be conferred if monastic links were part of a church’s history. In Hull’s case there is some historic evidence of white friars and black friars (Whitefriargate and Blackfriargate), being once present in the city although I have never seen any links shown in Hull Minster’s past history.

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We discussed the subject of Minsters on a previous thread - it can’t have been that long ago - but I can’t track it down.  Hull, and the Archbishop of York’s reason for designating it, was specifically mentioned.  But in relation to Minsters, I don’t think it was ever a hard and fast rule that the origins of the church had to be monastic - I’m sure it’s a matter of usage.  Unless I am mistaken, York, Lincoln and Southwell have never been monastic, but all are Minsters.  In the case of Leeds PC I was under the impression that its ‘promotion’ to Minster was in recognition of the creation of the new Anglican diocese of Leeds, taking in the existing Bradford, Ripon (already a Minster) and Wakefield Cathedrals.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Forgot to add this fine specimen of a case though it's a redundant instrument now - the Rushworth and Dreaper in Manchester Grammar School. As far as I'm aware the pipework is still in place behind the oak carved grills above the stage though the console was removed in 1987 when a new Peter Collins instrument was installed in the hall. The console was fixed and located approximately where the grand piano is:

1YlLHscQ.jpg

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On 27/11/2019 at 22:59, John Robinson said:

Haven't they changed it [Leeds Parish Church] to Leeds Minster now?

It seems to be trendy to adopt the title 'Minster' these days for some reason!

Not really the subject of organ screens, but people have questioned the widespread blossoming of “Minsters” (also happening in the south and west of England, e.g., Croydon Minster and Plymouth Minster, to name just two).  Here is the explanation from the present Archbishop of York:

“The status of Minster is an honorific title bestowed on major churches of regional significance in the Church of England, to reflect their importance and contribution to the local communities they serve”.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Leeds now has an Anglican diocesan bishop but no Anglican cathedral in the city of Leeds itself.  The Minster’s designation appears to reflect that fact without going as far as calling it the pro-Cathedral.  It is, of course, also a major church of regional significance.

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