The following information has been reproduced by kind permission of Mander Organ Builders

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PEARTREE CHURCH, SOUTHAMPTON - GRAY & DAVISON ORGAN

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In 1900 Gray & Davison built a new two manual organ, with a prepared-for third manual. Within five years the third manual had been inserted but by Burton of Winchester, not by G&D! At this point the action became pneumatic throughout. The choir organ was provided with pipework which was in keeping with the original intentions but not including the Harmonic Piccolo, although there was space left for the slide. The resources of the pedal were increased by the local firm of Ivimey & Cooper in 1950. More work was carried out in the 1970s.

 

In 1998 Mander Organs began the task of bringing the organ into line with Gray and Davison's 1900 specification, including new mechanical key, drawstop and composition actions. In addition, a new console

had to be constructed using oak and reclaimed pitch pine. Although the original pedal touchbox survived, it

had been drastically reconstructed to operate a newer tubular pneumatic action, by which the stop changes were no longer effected by slides. A new pedal stop action had to be created with pneumatic motors operating the slides to the touchbox. A completely new Choir soundboard was built to match the Great and Swell. The Harmonic Piccolo 2' which was included in the 1900 specification, and had been prepared for since 1905, finally got installed! The scales for this stop were taken from the Gray & Davison organ at Clumber Park

Chapel in Nottinghamshire, which is now in the care of the National Trust.

 

As they are now, the manual departments of the organ match the original Gray & Davison scheme, except for Swell Double Diapason 16' which was retained from the 1950 rebuild. The Pedal division was kept in its 1950 form, except for the revoicing of the Tuba as a Trombone 16' which balances better and is stylistically more in keeping with the period in which the organ was built.

St Katherine's, Regents Park, provided useful indications as to how the composition action could be constructed, but it was not until a visit to a small organ at Stapleford Abbots (1901) that a clearer picture emerged of G & D contemporary practice. By then dramatic changes had occurred. Iron trundles had taken the place of the timber vanes in the composition action, but it was the key action which showed the greatest changes. In place of the extensive rollerboards seen at St Katherine's were very small rollerboards, which serve to transfer the bottom nine alternate notes from C#2 to the treble end of the keyboards. The trackers are then splayed from the keys to the soundboards, which are laid out diatonically for the bottom 18 notes and

then chromatic from f#19 upwards.

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Specification of Pear Tree Church, Southampton (completed 1999)

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GREAT ORGAN                                                   SWELL ORGAN

Open Diapason         8      G&D                           Double Diapason 16

Stopped Diapason    8      G&D                           Violin Diapason      8     G&D

Gamba                      8      G&D                           Leiblich Gedact      8     G&D

Octave Diapason      4      G&D                           Echo Gamba          8     G&D

Harmonic Flute         4      G&D                           Voix Celeste (TC)   8     G&D

Twelfth                    2 2/3  G&D                            Gemshorn              4     G&D

Fifteenth                   2      G&D                            Flageolet                2     G&D

Posaune                   8      G&D                            Mixture                   III    G&D

Swell to Great                                                      Horn                       8     G&D

                                                                             Oboe                      8     G&D

                                                                             Octave coupler

                                                                             Tremulant

 

CHOIR ORGAN                                                  PEDAL ORGAN

Clarionet Flute        8       G                               Open Diapason         8     B

Dulciana                 8       B                                Bourdon                   16    B

Wald Flute              4       B                                Dulciana                   16    B

Harmonic Piccolo   2       M                               Octave                       8     B

Clarinet (A#)           8       B                                Bass Flute                 8     B

Swell to Choir                                                    Trombone                  16    I&C

                                                                          Great to Pedal

                                                                          Swell to Pedal

                                                                          Choir to Pedal

                                                  

                                                • 3 composition pedals to Great

                                                • 3 composition pedals to Swell

                                                • 2 composition pedals to Choir

                                                • G&D: Gray & Davison (1900)

                                                • B: Burton of Winchester (1905)

                                                • I&C: Ivimey & Cooper (1950 Tuba revoiced as Trombone)

                                                • Mander (1998)

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                               Technical Design             Geoff McMahon, Aidan Nutter

                               Workshop Production      Michael Smith, Harry Austin (Foremen)

                               Site Work                         Matthew Fry (Foreman)

                               Tonal Finishing                 Michael Blighton

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In addition to looking at St Katherine's, Regents Park and Peartree Parish Church organs the following instruments were examined:

St Anne's, Limehouse, London (originally built for the Great Exhibition of 1851)
Clumber Park Chapel (near Worksop, Nottinghamshire) built in 1889
St Mary's, Stapleford Abbots, Essex. built in 1901

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