John Christie (1883-1962) was a wealthy music lover who, during the 1920s, had a controlling interest in the organ building company of Hill, Norman & Beard Ltd. (Their cinema unit organs were called 'Christie' organs.) In his Sussex residence, "Glyndebourne", near Lewes, there was a music room 80ft. long, 21ft. wide and 31ft. high. At its east end was a space 21ft. deep and 21ft. wide. Here he had a 4-manual 46-stop organ built by Hill Norman & Beard organ in 1920. The stoplist was unremarkable for the date, a conservative example of British organ-building with a truncated Great chorus and a well-stocked Solo division:

GREAT
    16       Double Open Diapason 
     8       Open Diapason I
     8       Open Diapason II
     8       Claribel Flute
     8       Stopped Diapason
     4       Principal
     4       Wald Flöte
     8       Trumpet
 
SWELL
    16       Bourdon
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Rohr Flöte
     8       Salicional
     8       Voix Celestes
     4       Gemshorn
     4       Flute
     2       Fifteenth
    III      Mixture
    16       Contra Fagotto
     8       Horn
     8       Oboe
     8       Vox Humana
     4       Clarion
 
CHOIR
     8       Dulciana
     8       Viola di Gamba
     8       Lieblich Gedeckt
     4       Lieblich Flöte
     2       Piccolo
     8       Corno di Bassetto
 
SOLO
     8       Hohl Flute
     8       Gamba
     8       Dulciana
     8       Unda Maris (flute)
     8       Harmonic Flute
     4       Concert Flute
     8       Orchestral Oboe
     8       Orchestral Clarinet
 
PEDAL
    16       Open Diapason
    16       Violone
    16       Bourdon
    16       Echo Bourdon (Swell)
     8       Principal
     8       Bass Flute
    16       Trombone
    16       Contra Bassoon
     8       Trumpet

Rather in the manner of a British Rodman Wanamaker, Christie embarked upon a programme of ongoing enlargement; by 1926 the number of stops had climbed to 106. The organ-space was crammed full; the 32ft. pipes were coiled in a cellar, and the Echo division was at the opposite end of the hall.

The final stoplist was as follows:

GREAT
    16       Open Diapason 
    16       Quintaton
     8       Open Diapason I
     8       Open Diapason II
     8       Open Diapason III
     8       Open Diapason IV
     8       Corno Flute
     8       Tibia Plena
     8       Closed Flute
     8       Tibia Clausa
     4       Octave                   ext. Open Diapason I
     4       Principal 
     4       Wald Flöte
    3 1/5    Tenth
    2 2/3    Twelfth
     2       Fifteenth
    VI       Grand Chorus
    III      Mixture
    16       Contra Posaune           ext.
     8       Posaune
     8       Trumpet
     4       Clarion                  ext.
 
SWELL 
    16       Bourdon
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Rohr Flöte
     8       Echo Dulciana
     8       Gamba
     8       Vox Angelica
     4       Gemshorn
     4       Flute
    2 2/3    Twelfth
     2       Fifteenth
    II       Mixture
    16       Contra Fagotto
     8       Horn
     8       Oboe
     4       Clarion
             Tremulant
 
CHOIR 
    16       Dulciana
     8       Open Diapason
     8       Dulciana
     8       Lieblich Gedackt
     8       Flauto Traverso
     8       Viol di Gamba
     4       Salicet
     4       Lieblich Flöte
     2       Piccolo
             Gongs
     8       Open Diapason           Great
     4       Octave                  Great
    16       Contra Posaune          Great 
     8       Posaune                 Great
     8       Trumpet                 Great
     4       Clarion                 Great
 
SOLO 
     8       Violoncello
     8       Violes Celestes 2rks
     8       Zauber Flöte
     8       Harmonic Flute
     8       Unda Maris              flute celeste
     4       Concert Flute
    16       Cor Anglais             ext.
     8       Cor Anglais
     8       Orchestral Oboe
     8       Orchestral Clarionet
     8       Vox Humana
    16       Tuba Profunda
     8       Tuba Mirabilis
     4       Tuba Minor
 
STRING
    16       Contra Viol
     8       Viol d'Orchestre
     8       Voix Celestes
     8       Aeoline
     8       Quintatön
     4       Violette
    IV       Cornet des Violes
     8       Musette
             Tremulant
 
ECHO
     8       Dulciana
     8       Violes Celestes 2rks
     8       Hellpfeife
    4+2      Doublette
     8       Clarinet
     8       Vox Mystica
             Tremulant
 
PEDAL 
    64       Acoustic Bass             from 32ft. Open Diapason & Sub Bourdon
    32       Open Diapason             wood; ext. 16ft
    32       Sub Bourdon               ext. 16ft.
    32       Acoustic Bass             from 16ft. Open Diapason & Bourdon
    16       Open Diapason             wood
    16       Open Diapason             ext. Great Open Diapason I; metal
    16       Open Diapason             Great 16ft. 
    16       Violone
    16       Bourdon
    16       Echo Bourdon              Swell
    16       Contra Viol               String
    16       Dulciana                  Choir
     8       Octave                    Great Open Diapason I 8ft.
     8       Principal                 ext. 16ft. wood
     8       Violoncello               String
     8       Bass Flute                ext. 16ft.
     4       Fifteenth                 Great         
    IV       Mixture                   Great
    32       Contra Trombone           ext. 16ft.
    16       Trombone
    16       Tuba Profunda             Solo
    16       Contra Posaune            Great
    16       Contra Fagotto            Swell
    16       Contra Bassoon
     8       Tuba                      Solo
     8       Trumpet                   ext. 16ft.
 
Full complement of couplers.
Swell/String/Swell & String.   Solo/Echo/Solo & Echo.     Great/String.
Great Melody to: Solo, Swell, Choir (couples the top note played on Great 
                                     to the specified manual)
Great Bass Melody (couples the bottom note played on Great to the Pedal)
 
Blower 1, Blower 2, Blower 3, Echo wind, Player wind.
 
107 voices, 4 tremulants, 35 couplers, 8 indicators, 3 switches, 2 controls - 159 stops.
Wind 2 3/4in. (Choir) to 15in. (Tuba)

This stoplist is one of the most distinctive to emerge from what was an experimental period in organ design. The American influence is clear in the Hope-Jones/Skinner lineage of the Great unison flutes and the String division; the depth and weight of the Pedal flues are more peculiarly British. What is so very un-British - or rather un-English - is the adventurous, experimental spirit of the whole, and the sheer gigantism. The great American monoliths of the 'Romantic Zenith' have never been particularly well understood, much less emulated, in Britain; there is something about their sheer self-confidence which raises the hackles of the English psyche. At Glyndebourne, Christie threw caution to the winds and proceeded blithely to construct the palatial tonal structures of his organ.

Four Open Diapasons is rather excessive for the Great manual of an organ in a fairly small room; Christie would doubtless have happily agreed. With the four unison flutes and the two 16ft. ranks, the resulting wall of sound would have been the ne plus ultra of the typical English "rosbif", as Cavaillé-Coll said.

The only British organs ever to exceed a total of four Great Open Diapasons were Liverpool Cathedral (Willis, 1923-6) and the Royal Albert Hall, London (rebuilt Harrison, 1928) with five each (the Albert Hall Great also had a Geigen); both were exceptionally large organs speaking into big spaces. At Liverpool a sixth Open was discarded in the draft stages; the planned complement of 8ft. stops on Great was:

     8       Open Diapason No.1
     8       Open Diapason No.2
     8       Open Diapason No.3
     8       Open Diapason No.4
     8       Open Diapason No.5
     8       Open Diapason No.6
     8       Tibia Major
     8       Tibia Minor
     8       Doppel Flöte
     8       Stopped Diapason

which is not so very different from the Glyndebourne instrument.

At Winchester Cathedral, the Hele rebuild of 1905 left the 1854-92 Willis organ with perhaps the most eccentric Great division ever to grace a British cathedral organ. The Willis diapasons were perceived to be too weak to project into the great length of the building; Hele's solution was to duplicate what was there, but on a higher pressure. There were but 60 stops in the organ; Great had 19 of them, as follows:

GREAT
    16       Double Open Diapason No. 1        Hele
    16       Double Open Diapason No. 2        
     8       Open Diapason No. 1               Hele
     8       Open Diapason No. 2               Hele
     8       Open Diapason No. 3
     8       Open Diapason No. 4
     8       Doppel Flöte                      Hele
     8       Claribel Flute
     4       Principal No. 1                   Hele
     4       Principal No. 2
     4       Principal No. 3
     4       Flauto Traverso                   Hele
     4       Flûte Harmonique
    2 2/3    Twelfth
     2       Fifteenth
    III      Mixture
    16       Double Trumpet
     8       Trumpet
     4       Clarion

Belt and braces, indeed.

By 1934 John Christie was busy founding his renowned opera festival at Glyndebourne and the rest, as they say, is history. The organ languished, and was eventually removed and cannibalised for parts, though the console survives as a testament to one man's unbridled organ-fantasy.

SOURCES:
Both Glyndebourne stoplists are taken from specification leaflets published by Hill, Norman & Beard.