History of St James' Organ

Most of the organ that you see today dates from the latter decades of the 19th Century. Little of the pipework has any distinctive marking; some of the pipes were new at the last rebuilding and other pipes were purchased second-hand and then added.

In 1945, the organ was transferred from the redundant church of St Nicholas', Colchester. The organ was built and installed by Morten & Taylor in 1876 and then received major attention in 1912 from a small Northern company, Vincent of Sunderland. In its final year in St Nicholas' Church, the organ had three manuals and 35 stops. One of the two original organ cases survives as the single case now seen at St. James, and was by the architect J. Oldrid Scott who also designed the rather grander cases of St John's College, Cambridge (1889), Lichfield Cathedral (1907), St Alban's Abbey (1908), and Selby Abbey (1909).

In the 1950s there were some internal reordering at St. James; the former organ was removed from its chamber in the North-east corner, and apparently went to a church near Basildon, Essex. This instrument was a three-manual of 28 stops, built by Peter Conacher & Company of Huddersfield.

The old organ from St. Nicholas was rearranged at the West end, in the space under the tower, and was rebuilt as a substantial two-manual organ with electro-pneumatic action. This work was undertaken by J. W. Walker & Sons, and was completed in 1954.

The original Great and Swell were at first comparatively little-altered, and the Pedal department was enlarged by octave extension. Most of the electrical and mechanical components installed by Walker are in use unchanged today. In 1970 the organ was cleaned and some tonal alterations were carried out by the Thaxted firm of Arnold, Williamson and Hyatt. They provided a new Pedal Mixture and Trombone, a Krummhorn and upperwork in the Swell, a Seventeenth and revisions to the Mixture on the Great, and other minor changes. The organ appears to have been little changed since that work was completed.

The Organ Console

The console is of the stop-tab design popular for smaller organs at that time, and was very handsomely made in oak. The console was either a standard design that served also for three-manual organs, or the possibility of expanding to a three-manual design here was envisaged, because it very evidently allows room for the addition of a third keyboard. This makes the desk both higher and further away than convenient to the player.

Within the organ chamber, the large Swell division takes up the most of the space, with the Great Organ in front, projecting into the casework, and the Pedal chests to either side and behind the Swell. The Trumpet has its own chest mounted between the Swell and Great; the Trombone, Pedal Mixture, and Pedal Flutes are close to ground level.

The visible Organ Pipes

The pipework is a mixed bag, from a variety of sources and periods, and this does rather show in the sound. However, it is not physically in bad shape and though the unenclosed ranks of the Great Organ are a bit dirty, the general condition of the pipework is not that bad. Tonally, the quality is variable. In general, the older material is quite mild, and is not of very large scale. The ranks that were added or rebalanced in 1970 are mainly less successful.

The Future

The work of 1970 was carried out at the same time when the previous rebuild was only 16 years old, and quite reasonably did not include any significant attention to the mechanism. Most of the mechanism is now approaching 50 years old, and much of it is attached to components more than twice that age!

The organ party at the moment are in the process of deciding where to go from here. Whatever the decision, the organ party and the Parochial Church Council will ensure that a pipe-organ will continue to be heard in this beautiful church of St. James the Great!

This will of course cost a great deal of money, if you would like to make a donation towards this work then please get in touch with the Rector via the contacts page.

The history of the Parish Church of St James the Great

The history of St Paul's Church and the St Paul's Centre