The Scots PGC College Chapel, Warwick
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
The Scots PGC College Chapel, Warwick
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2011, 2014 (last updated September 2014)
The Scots PGC College in Warwick results from the amalgamation in 1970 of two separate colleges: The Presbyterian Girls' College, established in 1918, and The Scots College, established in 1919. Affiliation was ceded by the Presbyterian Church to the Uniting Church in 1977.1 The College Chapel originated as the Methodist (subsequently Uniting) Church on the corner of Guy and Grafton Streets, Warwick. This stone church had been opened on 10 December 1875 and further enlarged in 1900 and 1930.2 The entire building, including the organ, was moved to the present site under strict heritage control, where it was opened in April 1997.3
The Second Warwick Methodist Church, opened in 1875
[Photograph: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland]
The organ was originally a single-manual mechanical-action instrument of seven speaking stops built by B.B. Whitehouse & Co. of Brisbane. It was described in December 1908 as being under construction for the Methodist Church in Warwick,4 and was opened in June 1909:
NEW PIPE ORGAN.
The trustees of the Warwick Methodist Church have decided to install a new pipe organ in the southern transept of their handsome church. They are asking the builders to have all the fittings ready and the instrument installed in order that an organ recital may be held on Friday, 4th June. Mr. R. J. Archibald, who was a former organist in the Warwick church, and who has recently had a wide city experience, has consented to give the first recital, which should excite considerable interest among lovers of oratorio and sacred music.5
The 1909 B.B. Whitehouse & Co. organ in
the Methodist Church, Warwick, in 1932
[Photograph supplied by David Cahill, September 2014]
The specification was as follows:
| MANUAL Open Diapason Stopped Diapason [Bass] Stopped Diapason [Treble] Dulciana Voix Celeste Principal Flute [Treble] Flute [Bass] PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Manual to Pedal Octave Coupler |
8 8 8 8 8 4 4 4 16 |
Compass: [58/27]
Attached drawstop console
Mechanical action.6
This was one of at least five single-manual mechanical-action instruments built by B.B.Whitehouse & Co around this time, the others being for the Presbyterian Church, Ithaca (c.1908), the Scots Church, Clayfield (c.1908), the Presbyterian Church, Toowong (1909) and the Wooloowin Methodist Church (1911). The Warwick instrument appears to have been almost identical with the one for the Wooloowin Methodist Church. Both instruments had six ranks on the manual, including two divided stops, and one rank on the Pedal. The main difference between the two was that the Wooloowin organ had a Closed Horn 8ft whereas the Warwick one had a Principal 4ft.
The casework at Warwick was also identical to that at the Wooloowin Methodist Church and that for the two-manual organ at the Congregational Church, South Brisbane (1910). It differs from that at All Hallows' Convent, Brisbane (1911) and Holy Trinity, Woolloongabba (1912) in that the rail over the central flat is lower in these later instances.
The Warwick organ was reopened after being 'removed and extensively overhauled' in February 1918.7
In 1964 it was rebuilt with electro-pneumatic action and enlarged to two manuals by Whitehouse Bros, and was placed at this time in a new position in the church, with three stops added.
The Whitehouse organ and new console after the organ was rebuilt in 1964
[Photographs by David Vann (1982)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Dulciana Flute SWELL Violin Diapason Stop Diapason Salicional Principal Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Bass Flute COUPLERS Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Great Swell Super Octave Swell Sub Octave Swell to Great Super Swell to Great Sub |
8 8 4 8 8 8 4 8 16 8 |
A A |
[1964] [1964] [1964] |
The instrument was further enlarged by David Cahill of Warwick in 1997, when both the organ and the church itself were moved to their present location. The organ was placed in a new "swallow's-nest" case over the main door of the chapel. Three of the stops added at this time came from the 1910/1924 Whitehouse organ from Nundah Methodist Church (originally the Great Open Diapason 8ft, Great [Rohr] Flute 4ft & Swell Salicional 8ft).9
The organ with its new case in the college chapel
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Rohr flöte Dulciana Principal Twelfth Fifteenth SWELL Gedackt Gamba Principal Piccolo Larigot Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Flute COUPLERS Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Great Swell Octave Swell Sub Octave Swell Sub Octave to Great Swell Octave to Great |
8 8 8 4 2-2/3 2 8 8 4 2 1-1/3 8 16 8 |
A A |
Swell tremulant
Compass: 61/30
Detached stopkey console
Balanced swell pedal
Electro-pneumatic action.10
David Cahill at the refurbished Whitehouse 1964 console
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
_____________________________________________________________________
1 http://www.scotspgc.qld.edu.au/history - accessed March 2011.
2 Description supplied with photograph, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
3 Personal communication to G. Cox from David Cahill, 2003; Plaque on building, cited by Trevor Bunning, August 2010.
4 The Brisbane Courier (10 December 1908), p. 2.
5 Warwick Examiner and Times (26 May 1909), p. 5.
6 Specification supplied to G. Cox by Keith Lawson (organist of Warwick Methodist Church), 1974. Compass supplied by David Cahill from internal inspection, 2011.
7 The Warwick Examiner and Times (23 February 1918), p. 5.
8 Specification noted by G. Cox at Warwick Methodist Church, 1974.
9 Details supplied by David Cahill, via David Vann, 2003.
10 Specification noted by Trevor Bunning, August 2010.
[Photographs by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
