St John's Anglican Church

St John's Avenue, New Town

First organ, moved to Hobart. St John's Uniting (Presbyterian) Church.
Present organ, B. 1886 Hill & Son, London (job no. 1929).
2m., 18 sp.st., 3c., tr. Gt: 8.8.8.8.4.4.3.III.8. Sw: 16.8.8.8.4.2.8. Ped: 16.16.
Reb. 1955 Hill, Norman & Beard (o/n T334). Reb. 1977-78 Laurie Pipe Organs.
2m., 27 sp.st., 8c., el.pn. Gt: 16.8.8.8.8.4.4.2-2/3.2.1-3/5.III. Sw: 8.8.8.4.2.III.8.8.
Ped: 16.16.16.10-2/3.8.8.4.16.

Historical and Technical Documentation by John Maidment
© OHTA (last updated May 2011)





St John's Anglican Church, New Town : exterior showing tower
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]




St John's Anglican Church, New Town : interior showing roof and organ to left
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]




St John's Anglican Church, New Town : The Hill & Son organ case
[photograph by John Maidment (27 April 2011)]




St John's Anglican Church, New Town : interior showing reredos and stained glass
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]

St John's Church was designed by the important early Tasmanian architect John Lee Archer and formed part of a wider complex of church and orphan schools. The foundation stone was laid on 6 January 1834, the church was consecrated on 29 May 1835 and opened for worship on 20 December 1835.¹ This is a spacious stone building in a simplified Gothic idiom with a tall tower placed at the centre of the main facade. The interior has north and south galleries, one used for orphans and the other for convicts.

The original Gray & Davison organ shown at St John's Presbyterian Church, Hobart
[photograph from Historic Pipe Organs of Tasmania]

The first organ was built by Gray & Davison, London. It had a Gothic case in stained and varnished oak, with gilt facade pipes. The specification was as follows:

Two octaves of German pedals
The whole enclosed in a general swell²


This organ was sold to St John's Presbyterian Church, Macquarie Street, Hobart but was replaced by a new organ built in 1901 by Geo. Fincham & Son.

The Hill & Son organ before its rebuilding in 1955
[photograph kindly supplied by David Shield (8 November 2010)]




Order record for the Hill & Son organ
[kindly supplied by the British Organ Archive to OHTA]

The present organ was built by Hill & Son, London as the firm's job number 1929. The firm's order books record the following specification:³

Great CC to G C Skeats 1st Oct 1885 7-4 ½ rod cut pallets
Open 7
CC Dul
Clarab Hohl Fl
Gamba c gr
Prin
Wald Fl
15
Mix 3
Cremona CC

Swell CC to G C Skeats 1st Oct 1885 7-4 ½ rod, Block Cut Pallets
Bdn
Open
L. Ged
Sal (CC) c gvd.
Gems
Flaut
Ob

Pedal CCC to F
Open
Bdn

3 Couplers
5 Comp. Peds
2 Fronts (see plans)
Deal Case plain front
Spotted to 4ft
Straight pedals, with radiating sharps
Coll Orgts peds
Stool & looking glass.
Case like that at Rhyl very plain no top buttresses
One Front simply decd.
Bellows [illegible] x 4 6 rested

The Hill & Son organ case
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]




The Hill & Son organ case – upper section
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]




The Hill & Son organ case – detail of pipe decoration
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]

This organ was rebuilt in 1955 by Hill, Norman & Beard (Australia) Pty Ltd, of Clifton Hill, Victoria, the firm's job number T334. The mechanical action and attached console were discarded and replaced by a new electro-pneumatic action and detached console. Apart from the removal of the Hill & Son Cremona and the transfer of the Bourdon to the Great Organ, and the extension of several pedal registers, there were no other tonal changes.⁵ The case panels were carefully infilled so that there is no evidence of where the Hill & Son console was located. The organ was further rebuilt in 1977-78 by Laurie Pipe Organs Pty Ltd, of Moorabbin, Victoria when some further tonal changes were made including a full-length metal Bassoon 16ft to the Pedal Organ.. At some stage, the pipe mouths have been overpainted, removing the original border decoration.

The current specification follows:

* This was the old Swell Horn stop from the 1884 J.W. Walker & Sons organ at St Andrew's Anglican Church, South Brisbane, rebuilt by the Laurie firm in 1970⁵

The instrument still retains many of its Hill & Son characteristics and has fine choruses of considerable power speaking into a fine acoustic.

The Hill, Norman & Beard / Laurie Pipe Organs console – Dr Steven Nisbet performing
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]




The Hill & Son and Hill, Norman & Beard nameplates
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (27 April 2011)]

1 Roy Smith, John Lee Archer: Tasmanian Architect and Engineer (s.l.: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, 1962), pp. 14, 17; E. Graeme Robertson, Early Buildings of Southern Tasmania, volume two (Melbourne: Georgian House, 1970), p.197

2 The Mercury, 30 November 1887, p.4

3 Hill & Son order books, housed at the British Organ Archive

4 Specification noted 1970 John Maidment

5 Specification noted 1979 John Maidment