cnr Clarendon & Nightingale Streets, Maryborough
B 1887 George Fincham; res 1967 Laurie Pipe Organs
2 manuals, 11 speaking stops, 3 couplers, tracker action
Part of the present Christ Church was designed by the noted ecclesiastical architect Nathaniel Billing, a pupil of Gilbert Scott in England. The building consists of a five-bay buttressed bluestone nave in the Norman style, with a tower and modern spire to the north-west. The chancel, added later, is higher than the nave. There are fine stained glass windows at the east and west ends.
The organ was built by George Fincham and opened by Frederick Herbert on 7 March 1887. The cost was £336. The organ was moved from the left side of the chancel to the south-west of the nave in 1967 by Laurie Pipe Organs who carried out restoration work, converted the swell pedal to balanced operation, and substituted a metal Fifteenth 2ft for the original wooden Piccolo, although the original engraving survives. The stencilling of the façade pipes has been overpainted in gold. The instrument is of interest for its two facades, at right angles to one another, and the bold sound of the unison Open Diapason on the Great Organ. The builder’s plate, in brass, is unusually placed on a diagonal panel above the music desk.
| GREAT Open Dia Clarabella Dulciana Principal Flute Piccolo Swl to Gt SWELL Open Dia Stopd Dia Gemshorn Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Gt to Ped Swl to Ped |
8 8 8 4 4 2 8 8 4 8 16 |
[Fifteenth 2 1967] |
Compass: 56/30
Mechanical key & stop action
3 composition pedals to Great
Balanced swell pedal (originally trigger operated)
E.N. Matthews, Colonial Organs and Organbuilders. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1969, p.174
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Photos: JRM (Dec. 2007)
The organ in 1966, showing the original pipe decoration – John Maidment at the console
(John Maidment 1966)