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The organ stood on the south side of the west gallery. The attached console faced south.ORGANS IN & AROUND CHESTERFIELD
SS. AUGUSTINE, BIRDHOLME This splendid building replaced a small 'tin tabernacle' in 1931. It has an interior like a miniature Westminster Cathedral; a striking exterior incongruous among the rows of workers' terraces; Italianate in inspiration, Byzantine in detail.Photographs of the former church building show a plain interior with an elaborately Anglo-Catholic altar, and an organ with a pipe-rack standing to the left of the choirstalls. No detail of the console is visible, but the organ looks as though it might contain about 10 stops.
Perhaps this organ went to the new church in 1931, for it was not until about 1954 that another instrument was installed. This was the Brindley & Foster organ from St. Martin, Alfreton, Derbyshire. When I saw this instrument in 1980 a plaque on the console gave the date of construction as 1845; later I discovered that Charles Brindley did not set up in business until 1854, but Joshua Knott's book 'Brindley & Foster, Organ Builders' (revised edition 1985) confirmed that the plaque was nonetheless engraved thus.
'Musical Standard', October 16th 1869, p.185, gave the date of the organ by "Mr Brindley of Sheffield" as 1869. The organ was cleaned in 1893, and moved to SS. Augustine in about 1954 by the Johnson Organ Co. (Derby). Some of the obvious tonal alterations were presumably carried out at this time.
Here is the stoplist at the time of my visit in 1980:
GREAT 16 Lieblich Bourdon 8 Open Diapason I 8 Open Diapason II 8 Claribel Flute 4 Principal 4 Harmonic Flute II Quartane SWELL 8 Open Diapason 8 Lieblich Gedact 8 Viola da Gamba 8 Voix Celeste 4 Gemshorn III Mixture 16 Double Trumpet 8 Trumpet 8 Oboe Spare Slide Tremulant PEDAL 16 Bourdon 16 Lieblich Bourdon Great 10 2/3 Quint 8 Bass Flute 4 Super Octave 16 Double Trumpet Swell 8 Trumpet Couplers: 3 unison; Swell octave.
My memory of this organ is dim, but I recall both its powerful tutti and also its
poor condition. In 1987 a Rodgers electronic was installed with 31 stops on two manuals. When
I visited the church in 1991 the pipe-organ had recently been removed for scrap.
There was a Wesleyan congregation in this area by 1897, and the present building was dedicated in 1927. Music was led by a harmonium for about thirty years until an organ was purchased from the Assembly Rooms, Bolsover. This instrument had been built for the Wesleyan Chapel, Bolsover, by P. Conacher & Co. (Huddersfield) in 1876. In 1907 it went to the Assembly Rooms when the church bought a new organ by Keates.Generations have come and gone since the "jaw-bones of a whale" were placed in Derby Lane as a gateway. The Gothic-like arch has often excited the wonder and awe of school-boys; but mighty as those "jaw-bones" are, they yielded to Time's power, and have been repeatedly patched with bricks and mortar.
'Old and New Chesterfield' - Tatler, 1882
At Derby Road the organ was overhauled in 1990 by Chalmers & Hyde (Dronfield) who re-leathered the bellows, replaced wooden trackers with aluminium ones and refaced the manual keys. Here is the stoplist, taken on a visit to the church in 1991:
GREAT
8 Open Diapason
8 Stop Diapason bass 1-12
8 Stop Diapason treble tc
8 Dulciana tc
8 Viol di Gamba tc
4 Principal
4 Wald Flöte tc; stopped
2 Fifteenth
PEDAL
16 Bourdon
Great to Pedal.
Trigger pedal for the swell box (manual ranks enclosed except Diapason basses).
Compass: 56/17.
Mechanical action.
The stoplist of this organ is remarkably similar to that formerly in
Rupert Street Methodist, Pilsley. At Derby Road, however, there
is the unusual (and uncomfortable) 17-note pedalboard, chromatic from CC to tenor E. It is
an effective little instrument, its bright chorus adequate for the small church building.
The best stop is the gently stringy Viol di Gamba.
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