Silly organ instalation

[revtonynewnham]

Hi

On Saturday I attended the induction service of a colleague as minister at Hall Green Baptist Church in Birmingham.

I'd had alread discovered the organ had Hope-Jones parentage, as was interested to see exactly what it was.  It's perhaps tyhe most stupid installation I've ever seen (and nothing to do with H-J either!).  The church is, unusually for a Baptist church, basically of cruciform layout.  The pipes are in an elevated chamber in the "North" chancel - a couple of feet "N" of the chancel arch, so invisible in almost 1/2 the church.  The wall between organ chamber and transept is solid - yet the  console is in the "North" |Transept, and again set well back.  I played briefly after the service, and with only a handful of people remaining & talking - not too loudly (the rest of the congregation had decamped to the church hall for refreshments) I found the Great Viola & the Swell strings to be completely inaudible.

The organ was built by Hope-Jones for the congregation's previous home of Highgate Baptist Church, and moved here when the new church was established (not sure of the date - the church web site has disappeared!).  It was rebuilt by Compton in 1936 (that could well be the move date as well), and I suspect that there's been  another rebuild since, as the console has none of the usual Compton controls such as double-touch pistons & stop keys.  Aso,the Choir stop list in particular doesn't look like mid-1930's Compton!

Despite the problems, the organ sounds well in the church - maybe a little loud and harsh (but that's at least inpart down to registration I suspect).  It's quite a respectable small 3 manual - and still used regularly, which is a refreshing change for a Baptist Church!

Stop list:-

Pedal

Bourdon   16
Echo Bass   16
Octave   8
Flute   4
Trombone   16


Choir (enclosed):

Flute   8
Principal   4
Flautina   2
Larigot    1 ¾
Sifflot   1
Trumpet    8       (Great – unenclosed)
Tremulant (to Choir)

Great:

Teneroon   16
Diapason   8
Rohr Flöte   8
Iola   8
Principal   4
Twelfth   2 2/3
Fifteenth   2
Trumpet   8

Swell (Enclosed):-

Open Diapason   8
Stopped Diapason   8
Salicional   8
Voix Celeste   8
Stopped Flute   8
Principal   4
Fifteenth   2
Mixture   IV
Krumhorn   16
Cornopean   8


Couplers:-  (Grouped with dept augmented)
Swell to Pedal
Great to pedal
Choir to Pedal
Swell to Choir
Choir to Great (with Choir stops)
Swell to Great

Details will appear  on NPOR when I havetime, and when I've tried to find out a little more information.

Every Blessing

Tony

[Barrie Davis]

Hi Tony,

From memory Tom Sheffield rebuilt this, he was very fond of Sifflottes and the choir organ follows his normal re-modelling. I dont know who has his records now so I cannot verify this.

Best wishes

Barrie