ORGANS IN & AROUND CHESTERFIELD

ALL SAINTS, HEATH

Overlooking the rolling Derbyshire countryside south-east of Chesterfield, the view from this timeless village is spoilt only by the constant hum of the M1 motorway in the valley below. The stone-clad church dates from 1853, and the pretty spire is a local landmark. A new organ was dedicated on July 1st 1912, the work of Albert Keates (Sheffield). The total cost of instrument and alterations to the vestry was £570, of which £200 was donated by the Carnegie Foundation. The stoplist is as follows:

GREAT
    16       Double Diapason            stopped
     8       Open Diapason No 1
     8       Open Diapason No 2
     8       Hohl Flute                 stopped bass
     4       Principal
     4       Flute
    2 2/3    Twelfth
     2       Fifteenth
     8       Trumpet
 
SWELL    
     8       Open Diapason              stopped bass
     8       Gedact
     8       Echo Gamba                 1-6 stopped
     8       Celeste                    tc
     4       Principal
     8       Cornopean
     8       Oboe
             Tremulant
 
CHOIR
     8       Geigen Principal
     8       Stopped Diapason
     8       Dulciana                   stopped bass
     4       Lieblich Flute             stopped
     8       Clarinet                   from bass G
 
PEDAL
    32       Harmonic Bass              derived
    16       Bourdon
    16       Echo Bass                  Great    
     8       Bass Flute
 
Couplers: 6 unison; Swell 8ve & sub8ve.
Composition pedals:  3 Swell, 3 Great, Great to Pedal reversible.
Balanced pedals to Swell and Choir.
Compass: 61/30.
Tubular-pneumatic action.

 

The organ speaks into the chancel from a chamber on the north side. Two arches are filled with display pipes; the body of the instrument is behind the westernmost one, while the Choir box is behind the easternmost arch, its pipes speaking into the side of the swell box. Visiting the organ in 1991 and 1996, I found that it sounds rather buried and restrained, the Choir especially so. Its Dulciana is the merest whisper of sound; the whole division is as reticent as an Echo organ. The registers of the Great diapason choruses are rather woolly in tone, those on Swell retiring almost to the point of flutiness. Their volume is adequate for accompanying a choir in the chancel stalls, which was evidently Keates' intention; there is none of the boldness of treatment which would be necessary in order to effectively push out the sound past the chancel arch and into the nave. The best of the flutes is the Great Hohl Flute, a full, romantic sound. The swell strings are warm without being harsh, and a surprisingly effective full swell is possible with the octave and suboctave couplers. On Pedal the Harmonic Bass is better than the usual run of acoustic stops, probably because its parent ranks are themselves soft. The Bourdon is good, and the Echo Bass borrows the neutral toned stopped 16ft. from Great. There was obviously no room for the open 16ft. one might expect in an organ of this size; the vestry chamber is crammed full as it is. Keates has provided an surprisingly effective Pedal division nonetheless. The console is comfortable to manage, though the complement of playing aids is surprisingly restricted for an organ of this size. The drawstops are laid out in Keates' characteristic rectangular groups; their surfaces have turned a vivid orange colour with the passing of the years.

In 'Historic Organs in Derbyshire' (Cromford, 1998) Rodney Tomkins notes that the shutters of the Choir box have now been removed to increase egress of sound.

 

The Heath organ is an ambitious one for a village church. It is typical of those instruments which were built as large instruments in miniature, with all the tonal effects of a more complete instrument on a reduced scale. The stoplist is rather wasteful - two enclosed 8ft. diapasons, two enclosed 8ft. stopped flutes, etc. - and it is arguable that had a two-manual scheme been adopted from the outset a less cluttered internal layout would have allowed the pipes to speak more freely. The size of the organ and the presence of several inessential stops seem to have more to do with an organist's idea of what is necessary in a comprehensive stoplist rather than the musical requirements of a village church. Fewer stops and bolder voicing would possibly have made a more effective organ; as it is, much of the instrument seems to have been voiced down to chamber proportions, resulting in a loss of character in individual ranks as well as a reduction in overall volume. The gain is a wide palette of quiet effects and, as mentioned above, effectiveness in accompanying a chancel choir. Perhaps there was simply too much money available at Heath, resulting in a rather out-size instrument.

 

ST. ALBAN'S MISSION CHURCH, HOLMEWOOD

 

 

Holmewood colliery was built in the 19th-century, and the town followed shortly after. St. Alban's Mission Church (left) in the parish of Heath was opened in 1902. In 1932 an organ was installed by Albert Keates (Sheffield). Here is the stoplist, taken from the builder's leaflet:

GREAT    
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Stopped Diapason
     8       Dulciana    
 
SWELL    
     8       Violin Diapason
     8       Viol da Gamba     
     4       Gemshorn
     8       Cornopean
             Tremulant
 
PEDAL    
    16       Bourdon
 
Couplers: 3 unison; Swell 8ve.
Balanced pedal to Swell.
Compass: 61/30.
Tubular-pneumatic action.

The stoplist is identical to that at St. Leonard, Spital except for the addition of a Cornopean.

Sometime after 1945 the building was pulled down and the congregation moved into the former Wesleyan chapel (aka Bethel Chapel) across the road, which had an organ of its own. The fate of the Keates organ is unknown.

PICTURE CREDITS
Heath Church organ & console: Nigel Tilley 1991
St. Alban, Holmewood: 1930s photograph

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