St Michael's Anglican Church
Church Road, Mitcham

Bishop & Son 1878
Restored George Stephens Pty Ltd 1994
2 manuals, 13 speaking stops, 3 couplers, mechanical action

St Michael’s Anglican Church, Mitcham – exterior
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (October 2019)]


Historical and Technical Documentation by Lesley Lewis and John Maidment
© OHTA, 2019 (last updated October 2019)

 

The foundation stone of St Michael’s Church was laid on 30 September 1848 and the first service held in the incomplete building on 7 October 1852. The architect was William Weir. This nucleus was extended in 1864 with the addition of a second nave to the south of the original, designed by Edmund Wright, with the further addition of a priest’s vestry in 1871 and a choir vestry in 1891. The building contains many fine fittings including the outstanding east window, the work of James Powell & Sons, Whitefriars, London.1

 

St Michael’s Anglican Church, Mitcham – organ
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (October 2019)]

 

Bishop & Son, London, record the receipt of £250 in January 1878 from the Revd Professor Read, of Worthing, for the purchase of the organ at Mitcham, job number 1235. The stop list recorded in the firm’s order book shows that the Great was to contain five ranks, four of which were supplied, the fifth [Dulciana] only prepared for. The Swell was to contain four stops, three supplied with the order and the fourth prepared for. The Pedal to contain one wooden stop. The instrument was shipped early in 1878, installed at Mitcham by Robert Mackenzie and opened on 13 October 1878. Mackenzie must have encountered difficulties with the first installation attempt as markings inside the organ indicate that he and his wife reinstalled the organ two years later. Restoration work was carried out in 1888 by Fincham & Hobday and further work was undertaken by J.E. Dodd & Son in 1912 who installed the two missing ranks: Great Dulciana and Swell Oboe and restored the windchests. Originally hand-blown, the instrument was later blown by a hydraulic engine and an electric blower was added in 1946, when the instrument was moved to its present position in the church. In 1962 new pallets were fitted and the tension of the springs raised to alleviate leakage problems. In 1994 a substantial refurbishment of the instrument was undertaken by George Stephens Pty Ltd. The work included entire dismantling, cleaning and repairing of all parts in the organ. New components that were made copies as closely as possible original materials. The action was fully repaired and rebushed. The casework was repaired and polished and new panels installed to match the original where the organ has been moved further from the wall. Three new ranks of pipes were added, the 1912 Dodd pipework removed and replaced with new material, all constructed according to Bishop’s pipework elsewhere. The electric blower was installed in a space within the organ and a new steel-reinforced base for the whole instrument made to support the organ independently from the church floor.

 

GREAT Open Diapason Stopped Bass Clarabella Dulciana3 Principal Fifteenth Mixture 17.19.223 Swell to Great SWELL Gedackt Viol di Gamba Principal Trumpet Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Violoncello3 Great to Pedals Swell to Pedals	8 8 8 38 4 2 33 rks 8 8 4 8 8 16 38	CC-BB TC TC2 19943 gvd.bass 1994 19942
Compass: 56/30 5 composition pedals Balanced swell pedal Tremulant (Dodd) Mechanical key and stop action4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 Historical information from http://www.mitchamanglican.org.au/documents/St_Michaels_Booklet_2014.pdf, accessed 26 May 2019 2 Copied from the stops of the same name of the Bishop & Son organ at St Augustine’s Church, Unley 3 Composition and pipe scales taken from the 1848 J.C. Bishop organ at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Fernyhalgh, Lancs, UK 4 Specification noted by Lesley Lewis 2019

 

 

 

 

St Michael’s Anglican Church, Mitcham – console
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (October 2019)]




St Michael’s Anglican Church, Mitcham – left-hand stop jamb
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (October 2019)]




St Michael’s Anglican Church, Mitcham – right-hand stop jamb
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (October 2019)]