The Organs
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| The Organs |
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| Peter Howard playing the current organ |
Until the 19th Century only cathedrals and the largest churches could afford organs and professional musicians; instead the singing was led by a cantor, usually the parish clerk, sometimes accompanied by small orchestras of local amateurs. There was no organ in St. Anne's at the time of its consecration.
The first instrument was a small chamber organ the personal property of the first Vicar, the Rev. John Leverett, and placed in the South Aisle in 1875. It was built by J. C. Lewis of Brixton, London, a firm doing work of the highest calibre, their best known large organ being that in Southwark Cathedral. Both mechanically in action and structure, and tonally in pipe voicing and tonal design their work was first class. This firm was later merged with the world-famous firm of Henry Willis, of London. This first organ remained on loan to the church from the Vicar until 1895, was purchased by the church upon his retirement and continued in use until 1907.
The second incumbent, the Rev. John Hatton Jones was himself a fine musician and had a wide knowledge of organs, as is recorded below. He was instrumental in tenders being obtained in 1906 for a new organ of three departments, two manual, Swell and Great, and pedal; the excellent pipe work of the old Lewis organ was to be incorporated. The new organ was built the following year by Messrs. Brindley & Foster of Sheffield, a firm at the time producing very good work especially in the voicing of pipes of flute and diapason tone. The action was pneumatic, that is wind pressure was used to open the pipe valves, so relieving the fingers and feet of the organist of much of the weight. The blower was manually operated by hand-wheel and crank. This organ cost £779 plus £52 for wood work and was placed in a somewhat restricted organ chamber built on the South side of the Chancel. The manual blower was superseded in 1921 by an electrical blowing plant by Messrs. Watkins & Watson, of Sheffield. This organ continued in use until rendered unplayable by the bomb damage of 1940.
When the church was restored, reconstruction of the organ was undertaken by Harris of Birmingham, a firm which has since gone out of business. Fortunately no repair or replacement of the pipe work was needed, but the action had been destroyed and the opportunity was taken to make this electro-pneumatic to the manuals, the pedal organ retaining the pneumatic action. The organ was not entirely satisfactory, however, and in 1954 it was cleaned and regulated by the firm of Henry Willis of London. [Editorial note: I am reliably informed that this work was actually carried out by Hawkins of Walsall.] In 1969 further cleaning and overhaul was undertaken by Messrs. Nicholsons (Worcester) Ltd., of Malvern; this involved some tonal re-scheming and some pipe work was added. It is of interest that this work cost more than the original organ, so much had the value of money altered over the years.
In 1972, after 51 years service, the old blower began to fail and this was replaced by a new electric blower by British Organ Blowers of Derby. In 1974 the pedal action was impaired by damage from ingress of water following roof damage in a storm. Repair for this is proceeding, and further pipe work has been added, the centenary gift of an anonymous donor.
Extracts from A History of St Anne's, Moseley by George Hearn, MBE, MD, FRCP, published in 1974
Replacement and modernisation of the electric transmission was carried out during late 1984 by Messrs Nicholson & Co of Malvern. Stop mechanisms, thumb pistons and toe pedals were all converted to electric operation, adjustable from a switchboard located behind the music desk. Provision was also made for the future addition of 16' Trombone on Pedal, 8' Trumpet and 4' Clarion on Great and 8' Oboe on Swell at a later date. Other work carried out in 1984 included console overhaul, manual keys polished and re-aligned, pedal board keys re-surfaced and polished, swell box relined and the stop jambs revised to be more logical.
By 1989 it was evident that there was an accelerating pace of failure in the old underaction of Brindley's patent resulting in the failure of some thirty notes. It was therefore decided to proceed with the second and final stage of reconstructio of the organ, with money provided by the PCC, the Pigott Trustees and private donations. It was further decided that rather than attempt to reconstruct the Brindley sliderless chest actions, these should be replaced by new Nicholson slider chests of traditional manufacture. This work was put in hand at the end of 1989 and completed by Passion Sunday 1990. At the same time the opportunity was taken to complete the provision of the pipes prepared for in 1984.
The work has resulted in considerable improvement in tonal quality of the organ with improved wind distribution and supply to the pipes with their speech being much firmer and more positive than with the old failing system.
Peter Howard
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This page was last updated on 16th July 2001