ORGANS IN & AROUND CHESTERFIELD

ST. PETER, CALOW

This beautiful little church was built in 1869, and the distinctive steeple added in 1887. The interior is simple except for striking, richly executed paintings in the vault of the apse.

An organ was dedicated at Easter 1901, and the console fittings and stoplist suggested that Albert Keates (Sheffield) was the builder (see photograph below). In 1978 Chalmers & Hyde (Dronfield) overhauled the organ; the Dulciana was replaced by a Fifteenth and the Celestes by a Mixture.

GREAT
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Stopped Diapason   
     4       Principal
     2       Fifteenth                  tc    
 
SWELL
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Viol di Gamba
     4       Gemshorn
    II       Mixture  12.15     
 
PEDAL
    16       Bourdon    
 
Couplers: 3 unison.
1 composition pedal.
Balanced pedal to Swell.
Compass: 56/30.
Tracker action.

The organ was situated in the north of the choir, partially housed in a chamber backing on to the vestry. It was a pleasant, unremarkable little organ; the best rank, as so often in instruments of this sort, was the Stopped Diapason. By the early 1990s it was once more in need of an overhaul, and in 1998 it was replaced by a new organ by Henry Groves & Son (Nottingham). It is a five-rank extension organ with 19 speaking stops; the stoplist can be seen in the NPOR database here.

 

UNITED REFORMED CHURCH, CALOW

A congregational chapel was built at Calow in 1837 by a splinter group from the parish church at Duckmanton. They did not see eye to eye with their curate, and:

Things came to a head one Sunday morning when the curate entered the pulpit with two black eyes, which were a result of the previous night's carousal.

From this inauspicious beginning the church went from strength to strength. The present premises were built in 1903. In 1870 a harmonium had replaced a flute for the church music; in 1911 the organ was installed, at a cost of £220 for both instrument and its alcove. It is by Henry Jones (London). At a later date J.H. Adkins (Derby) overhauled and "enlarged" the organ; it was last restored in the 1980s by Chalmers & Hyde (Dronfield).

GREAT
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Hohl Flöte
     8       Dulciana
     4       Harmonic Flute   
     2       Fifteenth
 
SWELL
    16       Double Diapason      stopped; tc  
     8       Gamba
     8       Voix Celeste
     4       Principal
     4       Wald Flute           Adkins; replaced 1911 Oboe 8ft.     
 
PEDAL
    16       Pedal Pipes
 
Couplers: 3 unison.
2 composition pedals to Great & Pedal.
Lever swell pedal.
Compass: 56/29.
Tracker action

 

 

This is an impossibly old-fashioned design for 1911, and suggests that a second-hand organ was acquired rather than a new instrument. Tell-tale features include the limited compasses (particularly Pedal); the archaic stop-name for the Pedal Bourdon; the old-fashioned console fittings with trigger swell and small, flat jambs. All this suggests a date around the 1870s or 1880s.

Whatever its origin, it is a good little village-church instrument. The flutes are notable, particularly the 16ft. and 4ft. stopped registers on Swell. The Fifteenth inclines towards flute tone, and completes a pleasant chorus. The Gamba is a gentle diapason. The stoplist is slightly idiosyncratic, but works well in practice. It is versatile and full of possibilities for its size.

Left and Right stop-jambs, Calow United Reformed Church

PICTURE CREDITS
Calow Church organ: Nigel Tilley, 1991
Calow Church: Nadin postcard, c.1900
Calow U.R.C. organ: Nigel Tilley, 1991

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