Early 1900's Forster & Andrews Case Designs

[PaulH]

Some time ago I managed to get hold of a copy of Elvin's book on Forster & Andrews, the well-known Hull organ builders.  It's long out of print so hopefully no problem with reproducing a couple of pictures with this question.

I was really interested to see that in the three pictures attached - the then Holy Trinity Hull, and both King's Hall and Queen's Hall, all featured cases with rather startling fan-style displays of reed pipes. I don't believe I've ever seen this sort of thing before, and certainly haven't seen any in real life.  

HT's organ was of course "Compton'd" so looks nothing like this now;  King's Hall organ found its way to Norwood, London but according to NPOR without its elaborate case, and Queen's Hall organ now lies unused behind some grilles in the Jubilee Church in Hull.  So these three no longer exist in that state... are there any others elsewhere?  Did anyone other than F&A go in for this sort of thing?  And regarding Holy Trinity (Hull Minster), it would be fascinating to know if any of the painted reeds still exist in the organ's innards... removing all that paint would have been quite a chore!

[Barry Oakley]

I understand that Compton utilised the fan Tuba in his Holy Trinity (Hull Minster) rebuild of 1939, revoicing them to form the Swell Trumpet. Apparently it formed an incomplete rank and a new, complete rank was then installed. Apart from the fan Tuba the Hull Minster organ is much as you see in the picture. The former Queens Hall Methodist church organ is now no longer. The Jubilee Church where it was transferred closed some years back and the building is now occupied by a sect who had no use for the organ. It  was not destroyed and I believe all the pipework was saved.

At present the Hull Minster organ still remains unplayable, awaiting the accumulation of much needed funds for a complete restoration.

[father-willis]

Not a Forster and Andrews example but I do know of one example of fan trumpets. Unfortunately it no longer exists in its original home.
In 1867 the new Pubic Buildings were completed and opened in Penzance, Cornwall. In the main hall, known as St John's Hall, there was a newly built organ by Messers  Bryceson & Co to the design of W T Best who gave the opening recital. There is quite a thorough report on the organ in the local press comparing it to some other notable organs in the country in terms of size and completeness. It was, at the time, the largest organ in Cornwall - predating Truro Cathedral by some twenty years - and was Cornwall's only civic organ.
The instrument was cleaned and restored by Norman & Beard in 1904 when the trumpets were removed from the top of the case and set vertically inside. By the time of the 1939-45 war it was in a poor state and little used. I seem to remember being told that it had been dismantled and stored in the cellars of the hall. Mr Hugh Branwell, organist of Chapel Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Pz, and a man of private means, bought the instrument and in 1952 it was combined with the Walker organ in the said chapel by the Sweetland organ builders of Bath into a very large three manual organ becoming, in a similar way as before, the largest organ in Cornwall.
I am not sure that all of the fan trumpets were speaking pipes but some certainly were and they can be seen inside their present home with some of the decoration still on them in the following photos.