Penzance was once a treasure-trove of fine church organs, a number of them from the factories of one-time thriving West-Country firms such as H Crabb, Heard & Sons and Hele & Co, the latter firm outlasting the others. There were also instruments by major firms from London and further afield. J W Walker built an organ for Chapel Street Methodist Church in 1864 and continued to attend to it for several years afterwards, Norman and Beard rebuilt in 1905 the earlier 1867 Bryceson organ in St John’s Town Hall to make what must have been a magnificent instrument, long-since gone, though with pipes incorporated by the Sweetland Organ Building Co of Bath into the 1940’s rebuild of the Chapel Street Methodist organ, and a 1908 organ by Conacher & Co (The Old Firm) of Huddersfield for Richmond Methodist Church, also now lost, though a very fine example of Conacher’s work locally survives at Camborne’s Centenary Methodist Chapel, an organ installed there in 1904. (See my previous article ‘Edwardian Splendour’)
One of the finest instruments in Penzance and, indeed, the whole of the area was that in St Mary’s Church, which had its origins in an organ by Crabb, but later enlarged and improved by Walker and Hele. The instrument was damaged beyond saving in the cruel arson attack on the church in 1985. I was fortunate enough to have had lessons on this organ with Russel Jory, a first-rate local musician, prior to the fire and before I went to university. It was located centrally on the gallery at the west end of the church and housed in a beautifully-proportioned Gothic case and was a grievous loss to the organ heritage of Cornwall. The organ from the erstwhile Truro firm Heard & Co has been lost from St Paul’s Church and, at the time of writing, the same firm’s instrument in St John the Baptist Church has been out of use for several years.
On a much happier note, there is one organ in the town that was a real joy to have discovered for the first time recently (2022) and that is the 1896 Hele & Co instrument in Penzance Baptist Church. Hele built this new organ for the church on the gallery in a liturgical west-end position to replace an earlier 1865 Bryceson instrument that was in the more traditional non-conformist location behind and above the pulpit. I have no technical details of the Bryceson instrument, though I have seen a photo that shows it, and Hele, it seems, incorporated a number of the Bryceson ranks into the new organ, primarily those of the Swell department. This is certainly one of the most exciting instruments from West Cornwall to have come to my attention. Manual and stop actions, keyboards, key coverings, pedalboard and console fittings are all original from 1896, and the organ retains its lever Swell Pedal and trigger starter for the Tremulant. The Hele pneumatic action to the Pedal was electrified in 1972 by George Osmond of Taunton (another defunct West-Country organ firm) a change that was relatively minor in the overall scheme of things and one that was executed very tidily. The action was working well some 50 years later when I played the organ for the first time. Tonally, the instrument is one of immense character and versatility, ranging from delicate and colourful individual ranks to a thrilling Tutti, while the Great Trumpet would give many similar such stops in more exalted places a run for their money. The organ was not in altogether good shape by the turn of the century but was returned to a playable condition in 2001 by Lance Foy of Truro (to whom I am indebted for supplying some of the detail) but, importantly, with no tonal alterations or further modification of the existing actions.
Few Hele & Co instruments of this period, a time when the firm was in its ascendency, have survived in as original condition as the Penzance Baptist Church organ, and this was recognised in 2022 with a Grade II* Historic Listing awarded to the organ from the British Institute of Organ Studies, an organisation that is working constantly to identify, list and draw awareness to pipe organs of significant historic and musical importance across the country.
The technical details of the Penzance Baptist instrument are as follows:
Pedal: Open Diapason 16, Bourdon 16, Bass Flute 8
Great: Large Open Diapason 8, Small Open Diapason 8, Clarabella 8, Principal 4, Harmonic Flute 4, Twelfth 2 2/3, Fifteenth 2, Trumpet 8
Swell: Double Diapason 16, Violin Diapason 8, Gedact 8, Salicional 8, Voix Celeste 8 Principal 4, Harmonic Piccolo 2, Mixture II, Oboe 8, Cornopean 8, Tremulant
Choir: Lieblich Gedact 8, Dulciana 8, Gamba 8, Lieblich Flute 4, Flautina 2, Clarionet 8
Couplers: Great to Pedal, Swell to Pedal, Choir to Pedal, Swell to Great, Swell Octave, Swell to Choir, Choir to Great
Accessories: Trigger Swell and Tremulant Pedals, 3 + 3 Combination Pedals, Hand-pump preserved.
Jeffrey Williams at the console of Truro Cathedral organ
Jeffrey Williams
Principal Organist, St Ia’s Church, St Ives
Organs Advisor to the Diocese of Truro
Historic Organs Co-Ordinator for the British Institute of Organ Studies
I know nothing about organs but my understanding was that St John’s Hall was equipped from its opening in 1867? with a London built Bryceson organ ( which cost about 10% of the whole building project) but it was one of the last built with mechanical valves which were made obsolete by the advent of electrically actuated valves and by about 1910 the St John’s Hall organ was in need of major overhaul ( plus newer forms of public entertainment had arrived).. Do you know when it was physically removed from St John’s Hall?
Thank you micky, I will pass this to jeffrey. Best, Tony
Hi Micky. I passed your comments to Jeffrey and he has responded thus:
The National Pipe Organ Register has the St John’s Hall organ originally built by Bryceson in 1867, but rebuilt by Norman & Beard in 1905. This is the instrument to which I was referring in the article. The NPOR records the organ as being ‘almost unplayable’ in 1938, and, sometime after that, was purchased by the then organist of Chapel Street Methodist Church and incorporated into the 1940’s rebuild of that instrument by Sweetland Organ Building Co, as I mentioned in the article. The NPOR does not have an exact date for the removal of the St John’s organ, but suggests that the rebuilt Chapel St instrument dates from c.1946.
I have attached a slightly tweaked article to make clearer the origins of the St John’s Hall instrument. Perhaps you can post this one instead.
All good wishes
Jeffey