ORGANS IN & AROUND CHESTERFIELD

BAPTIST, CROSS STREET

Brewery Street Chapel, c.1900

 

The Baptist chapel in Brewery Street was opened in 1863, with 350 seatings.

 

In 1906 an organ by Albert Keates was installed second-hand from Heeley Parish Church, Sheffield, which was upgrading to a larger Keates instrument. When the Brewery Street congregation moved to new premises in Cross Street in 1927, the old chapel was sold to the Royal Hospital and subsequently used as a physiotherapy unit. It is now (1999) a bar.

The organ went to Cross Street and was installed in the chapel on the first floor of the building, in a chamber at the front of the room, its pipes screened by a slatted wooden grille (right). It was here that I saw the instrument in 1991 shortly before it was removed by a local enthusiast. It had been silent for some four years. Here is the stoplist:

GREAT
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Stop Diapason
     8       Dulciana
     4       Principal
     4       Harmonic Flute
    2 2/3    Twelfth
     2       Fifteenth
 
SWELL
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Lieblich Gedact
     8       Viol di Gamba
     4       Principal
     2       Fifteenth
     8       Oboe
             Tremulant
 
PEDAL
    16       Bourdon
 
Couplers: 3 unison.
2 composition pedals.
Balanced pedal to Swell.
Compass: 56/30.

A brief glance behind the wooden grille revealed traces of golden paint on the Great diapason pipes; evidently they had previously been on display.

In 1987 the congregation purchased an electronic instrument by Makin, deciding that it had become too expensive to overhaul the Keates. The Makin has 21 stops on two manuals.

PICTURE CREDITS
Brewery Street Chapel: postcard, c.1900
Cross Street organ: Nigel Tilley, 1991

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