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Organ
The organ, after being examined by an expert, was thought to be
too old to be put in our new, warm building, so has now been sold to
a Baroque Church in France, where it will be used regularly.
The organ at St.John's Church Alltwen was installed in 1886. It has a two manual instrument and has the following specification:
GREAT: SWELL:
8' Open Diapason 8' Horn Diapason
8' Clarabella Flute 8' Soft Flute
8' Dulciana 8' Salicional
4' Principal 4' Gemshorn
4' Flute 2' Piccolo
8' Oboe
PEDAL: COUPLERS:
16' Bourdon Swell to Great; Swell to Pedals; Great to Pedals
Below an article is printed that was featured in our Parish magazine. It has been contributed by Margaret Edwards and details some recent restoration work and information on the organ.
The organ at St. John's was built by Vowles and Sons of Bristol, (Yes, organs are 'built', and the craftsmen who make them are called 'organ builders', who would have served up to 7 years as apprentices and 'improvers' before they qualified.)
The bellows of the organ, which stores and controls the air to make the pipes 'speak', recently needed repairing. The leatherwork on the bellows needed renewing.
(If you could look inside the organ, you would see that the bellows are covered in all kinds of ‘weights' just placed on top. Sometimes, these are iron weights made especially for the job, but sometimes, they are made up of whatever was to hand, bits of old gravestones, bricks, etc. It looks like a load of old rubbish, but is essential to the proper working of the organ). The whole bellows was removed from the organ, and taken to a workshop. Inside the framework of the bellows was found a label on which was written.
'R. B. Burnell made these bellows for Alltwen, South Wales, April 22nd, 1888. The date may be a little misleading, it must be the day on which the work was finished, as it takes several weeks to leather [and re-leather] a large bellows of this type, as traditional bone or hoof glues used to fix the leather, have to be allowed time to dry thoroughly before the next stage in the work.
The re-leathering was completed, and the bellows re-instated in the organ on June 16th 1998, and the organ was in use on Sunday, June 21st and in time for our Patronal Saint's day on June 24th.
The keys, which are usually made by specialist key-makers, are, in organs of this are, generally covered with ivory, and they connect, by rods and levers, to the soundboards, which are the action chest on which the pipes stand. As a rule, the stops, on each side of the keys, control the various voices of the organ, and usually switch ON/OFF a rank of pipes, one pipe for each key. For example, an organ with 10 stops and 60 keys would have approximately 60O pipes.
The numbers shown under the stop name, e.g. Open Diapason 8', indicate the speaking length of the pipe, so the largest pipe in the Alltwen organ would be overall around 10', when the foot of the pipe is included, the speaking length of the smallest pipe would be approx ½.
Pipes are made from wood or metal, the large front pipes are speaking pipes and are made mostly of zinc, while most of the internal pipes are made from a composite of lead and tin.
The largest wood pipes are operated by the pedals, and the tops are stoppered, which besides providing a means of tuning effectively, double the given length of the pipes, and give an eight foot long pipe the pitch of a 16', and provide the traditional rich bass of a pipe organ.
It is interesting in passing, to note that some recent restoration work on the organ of Nelson Church has shown up a sign of another bygone craftsman, namely, 'T Keeler’, 1843. ` This organ was probably second-hand, as it pre-dates the present church by 50 years. A paper patch in one of the soundboards is dated 1893, which was most likely about the date it was installed on its present site.
When one considers there is no reason to doubt that an instrument of this type will still be working in 100 years time, it is very good value for money, and a lasting memorial to the organ builders who made it.
Click either picture to see them full size:
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