St Paul's Anglican Church
Humffray Street, Ballarat
B 1864 J.W. Walker, London; reb 1957 Geo Fincham & Sons.
2m, 22 sp st, 7c, el pn. Gt: 8.8.8.8.4.4.2-2/3.2.III. Sw: 16.8.8.8.8.4.2.8.8. Ped: 16.16.8.8.
An earlier church was begun in 1858 on this site which was enlarged in 1862, when the present brick tower was erected. This building subsided in 1864 owing to the proximity of gold mines beneath the foundations. The present church was opened in 1865 but retaining the tower from the previous church; it is possible also that some of the original window tracery was recycled. The building was designed by the prominent Anglican architect Leonard Terry.
Prominently sited on Bakery Hill, at the eastern end of the main city area, this building is in the Decorated Gothic style, with large windows at the east and west with curvilinear tracery. The hall church interior has very tall wooden columns separating the nave from the aisles. The ceiling timbers are stencilled. There is stained glass by Ferguson & Urie and D. Taylor Kellock.
The organ was built in 1864 by J.W. Walker, London, as the firm’s job number 744, at a quoted cost of £288 and ordered by Messrs Wilkie, Webster & Co, Music Warehouse, Melbourne via their agent T.J.J. Barton, 10 Throgmorton Street, E.C.
The original specification was:
| GREAT Open Diapason Viol di Gamba Stop’d Diapason Bass Clarabella Principal Wald Flute Twelfth Fifteenth Sesquialtera SWELL Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Principal Fifteenth Cornopean Hautboy PEDAL Double Open Diapason |
8 8 8 tone 8 tone 4 4 tone 2-2/3 2 III 8 8 tone 4 2 8 8 16 |
TC CC-BB TC TC (to TC, bottom octave acting on Great Stop’d Diapason Bass) |
Compass: 56 (Great) / 44 (Swell) / 30 (Pedal)
4 couplers (including Swell Organ in Octaves, Pedal Organ in Octaves)
Mechanical action
Attached console
The case design, with its diagonal cusped transom rails and fleur-de-lys finials, closely resembles that designed by English architect S.S. Teulon for the Music Hall at Shadwell Court, Norfolk (1860).
The organ was opened on 23 June 1865, a report in the Ballarat Star of 24 June 1865 stating:
“The instrument is of good tone, and will be another valuable addition to our Church choirs. There is an objection in having the organ-blower exposed in front of the organ and it would be well if some screen were erected that would hide him and the organist from view.
Total number of stops, 20, and pipes, 830. There are four composition pedals for mixing the stops. The ordinary pedal action consists of two octaves and a third. The instrument is enclosed in a neat, stained and varnished case, with front speaking pipes, decorated in gold and colour. Amongst the solo stops may be particularised:- The Viol di Gamba, for its soft and reedy quality of tone; the Wald Flute, the Claribella. The Cornopean, and the Hautboy will all be found of first rate quality. The Great Organ Open Diapason is a powerful and finely voiced stop. All the metal pipes are of a superior metal to that generally used. The instrument was built by Walker, of London, imported and erected in the Church by Messrs. Wilkie, Webster & Co., of Collins Street, Melbourne.”
In 1892, Fincham & Hobday moved the organ from the west end to the east end of the nave, at the same time adding several new stops and extending the casework at the western side of the instrument. A hydraulic blowing engine was also fitted beneath the organ in an underground chamber. Later changes, including a new swell soundboard, were made in 1903 by E. Cornwall Cook and rectified by George Fincham & Son in 1908.
In 1957 the organ was rebuilt by George Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd. The orginal pipework and tonal scheme survived intact but the action was electrified and a detached console installed on the opposite side of the chancel, since moved to the south wall of the nave.
GREAT |
8 8 8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 III 16 8 8 8 8 4 2 8 8 16 16 8 8 |
gvd.bass TC A A |
Compass: 61/30
7 couplers
Detached stopkey console
Electro-pneumatic action
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 Sturt Street, Ballarat |
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The illustration above comes from The Builder, 14 July 1860, showing the precedent for the organ case. |
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Photos: JRM (Dec 2008) and Simon Colvin (Nov 2008)
J.W. Walker ledger book C, p.178
The Builder, vol 18 (1860), p.449
St Paul’s Church, Ballarat centenary organ recital 18 March 1964
E.N. Matthews, Colonial Organs and Organbuilders. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1969, p.161
Vintage Victoriana: the XVIIth annual conference of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia. Camberwell, OHTA, 1994, pp.28-30
John Maidment
9 December 2009