The Church of St Mary with St Peter,
Anglican Parish Church
The organ at Oldham
Parish Church
by Les Garner,
organist of Oldham Parish Church
The medieval church seems to have
had an organ, but references to it are fleeting and contain no details
whatsoever other than a remark about repairs to the instrument.
This short article is therefore
about the present organ, which was opened with the
church on 12 December 1830. The organist was William Knyvett, 17779–1856. he was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and a Lay Vicar of
Westminster Abbey — both establishments containing organs in the care of Elliott
& Hill.
It is not surprising that building
the new organ was entrusted to Elliott & Hill.
The local newspaper referred to it as a ‘noble and excellent organ, said to be
the best in the kingdom.’ The cost of £750–0–0, a not
inconsiderable sum at that time.
It was, for its day, a good-sized
instrument, but as was common, the manuals (keyboards) were of a shorter
compass than today, as was the pedal organ. The organ was ‘improved’ by Hill in
1866, when it would appear that the work related to increasing the number of
pedals and adding more stops to that department, namely the Bourdon, Principal
and a Trombone –a most glorious stop with wooden resonators.
In 1895–6, Hill performed more work
to the action of the keys, new keyboards, repairs to pipes, some
‘re-voicing’ of the reeds and re-leathering of the bellows.
In 1906–7, Hill returned to Oldham,
this time to rebuild the organ, which entailed bring the case further forward
on the gallery, to allow for a re-orientation of the pipe chests within it and
to increase the size of certain sections of the pipework. The key action was
totally replaced from mechanical to tubular pneumatic which
would have made it much lighter to play. A new console was
provided and an electric blower was sited in the crypt. Unfortunately,
part of these alterations removed some of the original 1830 Elliot and Hill
pipes from the Great organ.
Thus far the console was in the
gallery, which was fine when the choir was up there, but in 1890 the choir was
moved to the east end, and this led to difficulties in communication between
the organ and the organist in the west end and the choir in the east end. This
situation persisted for 40 years until a decision was taken
to electrify the action of the organ and place a detached console at the
eastern end of the nave. The work was carried out by
Ernest Wadsworth Ltd and was their first and only foray into electric actions.
The organ was re-opened by the famous H. Goss-Custard
on 19 December 1931.
The new action was cumbersome and
not very successful. By 1949, it seems that some damage had
been caused to the cables by rats or mice, and this was causing major
problems. After work by Jardines of Manchester, the organ struggled on until
1958, when the console and actions were completely replaced
by Conachers of Huddersfield.
In the 1970’s, during a major
re-ordering and decoration of the church, the console was
returned to its original site on the gallery and there it has remained.
We are indeed fortunate that about
60% of the existing pipework is original 1830 Elliot and Hill, largely
unaltered, and therefore of great interest within the pipe organ world.
Our organ has been described as
having ‘refined voicing’, ‘a remarkable survivor,’ ‘of historic interest’ and,
despite its shortcomings, it is a much-admired instrument within Oldham and its
hinterland.
Of course, it is now 50 years since
any major work was carried out and there is much to
concern us. It is filthy inside and needs stripping out and the accumulation of
the dirt of decades, plus the fall-out from the re-ordering, cleaned out. The
cotton-covered wiring is also 50 years old and is beginning to break down,
causing ‘shorts’ between notes and occasionally preventing stops from working.
This is a major, and expensive, undertaking and it would be wise while trying
to do this to try to address some of the shortcomings of the instrument and to
put right some of the ill-advised ‘improvements’ of previous rebuilds.
This will take a six-figure sum and
although some grants will no doubt be available, we will have to raise a
substantial sum ourselves. I hope to organise some Saturday lunchtime recitals
this years and I have other fund-raising ideas, which should not overlap with
general fund-raising. I do hope I may count on your support.
It is important that, enjoying our
terrific organ as we so, we also preserve it for future generations.
I hope this has been of some interest. Later this
year, I will be selling a more detailed illustrated history. To finish a
quotation from the book of Job: ‘They rejoice at the sound of the organ’ (av).
Back to Oldham Parish
Church main page
Page posted 1 March
2009