ORGANS IN & AROUND CHESTERFIELD

ST. LEONARD'S MISSION CHURCH, SPITAL

 

 

Situated on a steeply rising street in the small suburb of Spital, this red-brick building dates from 1881 and matches the architecture of the surrounding houses it was built to serve. Inside all is white, airy, luminous, peaceful, seemingly larger than the exterior suggests.

The organ stands at floor level in a chamber on the north side of the sanctuary area. Built by Albert Keates (Sheffield), a plaque on the console informs us that it was dedicated on June 19th 1924. The stoplist is as follows:

GREAT    
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Stopped Diapason
     8       Dulciana    
 
SWELL    
     8       Violin Diapason        1-12 stopped
     8       Viol da Gamba          1-12 grooved to diapason    
     4       Gemshorn    
             Tremulant
 
PEDAL    
    16       Bourdon
 
Couplers: 3 unison; Swell 8ve.
Balanced pedal to Swell.
Compass: 58/30.
Tracker action.

My visit in 1991 revealed that a very fine little organ hides behind this apparently dull stoplist. The ensemble is virile and bright. On Great the Open Diapason has a cantabile quality with a slight chiff to its speech. The bucolic, bubbly Stopped Diapason is the gem of the instrument. Its timbre changes abruptly below tenor G, suggesting that it is a re-used rank from an old short-compass Swell; Keates is reported to have re-cycled old pipework thus. The Dulciana is stringy, of equal volume with the harder-toned Gamba on Swell. Both these stops need regulating. The Violin Diapason is a slightly softer edition of the Great stop, with little trace of string tone; the Gemshorn is its dynamic match, with a breathy, chiffy timbre. It takes the octave coupler well. The Bourdon has a firm, colourful tone, but is too loud to balance the soft manual stops.

Mechanically, it is in generally good shape. Tonally, it is strong and healthy, 75 years young.

PICTURE CREDITS
Photographs by Nigel Tilley, 1991

Return to the index of organs
Return to the introduction to organs in & around Chesterfield
Return to the front page of the website