JULIAN RHODES' DREAM ORGANS
ORGANS OF HASTINGS & ST. LEONARDS

GREAT
    16       Contra Gamba                1-12 stopped wood
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Claribel Flute
     4       Principal
     3       Twelfth
     2       Fifteenth
     8       Trumpet
 
SWELL
    16       Lieblich Bourdon
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Lieblich Gedact
     8       Salcional                    sic
     8       Vox Angelica                 tc
     4       Gemshorn
     8       Cornopean
     8       Hautboy
             Tremulant (by thumb-piston)
 
CHOIR
     8       Viola da Gamba
     8       Dulciana
     8       Hohl Flöte
     4       Flûte Harmonique
     8       Corno di Bassetto
 
PEDAL
    16       Open Diapason               inserted 1904
    16       Bourdon
 
5 unison couplers (no Choir to Great).
 
Composition pedals:  2 to Swell, 3 to Great and Pedal.
                     Great to Pedal reversible.
 
Balanced pedal to Swell (replacing lever pedal in 1971).
 
Mechanical key, stop and combination action;
pneumatic to pedal stops and facade pipes.
 
Compass: 56/30.
 
Oak casework designed by J.L. Pearson, the architect of the church.

Restored in 1971 by Willis; tonally unaltered, original action and console retained.

SOURCE:
Author's survey 1991 - 2000, and information from published and unpublished historical notes.

SOME NOTES ON THE CHURCH

The church building was consecrated in November 1885. It replaced a smaller structure dating from 1860 on the site of the present Church Centre, which contained a pre-1881 organ by Henry Jones.

Silverhill was a rapidly developing residential area in the second half of the 19th century, and less than three years passed between the decision to open a fund for the new church and the completion of the building, at a cost of £11,134-1-10d.

The rector at the time was Revd. Francis Newton, one of those wealthy clergymen who were such a remarkable feature of the period. He was determined that the architect should be John Loughborough Pearson (1817-1897), having been particularly impressed with Pearson's work at St. Barnabas, Hove. Pearson's avowed aim in church architecture was "to think what will bring people soonest to their knees". During the course of a highly distinguished career he became one of the leaders of the Gothic Revival. His work includes Truro and Brisbane Cathedrals, St. Augustine, Kilburn, and St. Stephen, Bournemouth.

St Matthews occupies a commanding site, and, in 1885, rose dramatically from surrounding cornfields. It shows Pearson's predilection for 13th century French gothic architecture, coupled with an attempt at financial economy by using materials less costly than stone. The exterior is of local red brick, the interior has facings of Sittingbourne yellow stocks, and the aisles have vaults of cement. The decorative brickwork in the nave clerestory and chancel is noteworthy. The single span roof, some 56ft. high, is of Oregon pine, worked in typical Sussex style. Pearson, one of the most expensive architects of his day, declared it to be a successful example of inexpensive church architecture.

Many of Pearson's fittings were never completed. The reredos dates from 1900 and was designed by Sir Aston Webb. The entrance porch at the south-west corner was designed to support a stone tower and spire 200ft. high; this plan was abandoned in 1931 as the cost was prohibitive.

In the south-east corner is the Askwith Chapel, named after Canon Charles Askwith, rector from 1910 to 1941. Its east window was installed from the previous church building in memory of Revd. John Cumberledge, who had retired to Tilsworth Lodge, next to the present Church Centre, and who gave both the land adjoining his house and the funds to build the original St. Matthews Church. He became its first minister and, later, his widow was to donate nearly one-third of the cost of the present building, together with the pulpit.

A brass plaque near the organ commemorates the life of Henry George Baily, honorary organist from 1885 to 1931. A vicar's son, he was born in Swindon and played the organ for church services from the age of eight. He came to Hastings in 1875 to practice as a solicitor, founded the Hastings and St. Leonards District Law Society, and in 1920 was elected President of the County Law Society at Brighton. Before his appointment to St. Matthews he was organist for ten years at St. Leonards Parish Church, Marina. He died in 1936, aged eighty-six.

A brass plaque on the south choirstalls commemorates the life of William Bowerman (1831-1895), a local draper whose main claim to fame is as the husband of Edith Bowerman Chibnall, and father of the well-known womens' rights campaigner Elsie Bowerman, both of whom survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.