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St Andrew's Church - The Organ
A
letter dated October 4th, 1905 survives written by Harry Plunket Greene to
his father-in-law, Hubert Parry, asking him to get a quotation from the London
organ builder, J W Walker, for the
installation of a small organ in St Andrew’s Church.
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Dear H.
Will you like a good chap, when you have a moment
call up Walkers on the telephone and inquire from them what they could
do a very small organ for a very small church for. It will require only
two manuals and the simplest of pedal arrangements & no fancy stops.
It could not take up more than nine feet about across and ... it must be
as uncomplicated as possible. Ask him for his very lowest price. Don’t
write. Tell him on the telephone or get someone else to tell him, as if
you begin writing you’ll tell him the whole history of H. Priors
church & D. P. & all the rest of it. ...
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The Easter Vestry for 1906 under the vicar, H Durbin
Lewis, set up a committee consisting of "the clergy, the church officials,
and Lord Portsmouth, Captain Wyld, Mr Plunket Greene and Mr G Cook. Mrs Plunket
Greene was elected Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, Mr Tovani [the newly
arrived curate]
to act as her deputy in her absence." In the event, the organ was ordered
from Messrs Bishop & Son, and approval sought for the moving of the pulpit,
and construction of new choir stalls at the same time.
The Organ was duly installed in the chancel and dedicated
at a Service on 19th May 1906. Hubert Parry played the organ at the
service and wrote a setting of Psalm
150 for Harry to sing at the Service.
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The augmented Church Choir (somewhere among them Harry Plunket
Greene), processing to the Organ Dedication Service
held on 19th
May 1906.
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The Easter Vestry in April 1907 records the organ
blower's fee being fixed at the rate of £1 yearly. "Mr Greene
proposed a special vote of thanks to the Earl of Portsmouth, for the great
help given in enabling the congregation to get the new organ placed free
of debt. ... It was also agreed to provide for general use in the church a
number of copies of the new edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern
[published in 1904]."
In 1908, Bishop & Son, the organ builders, were
contracted to tune the organ in spring and autumn for an annual payment of
52 shillings and 6 pence.
The Organ was provided with an electric organ blower
in 1948 and moved to its present position in the
Portsmouth Aisle in 1989 (pictured below).
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