Report from The Organ Club, visit 16^th August 2008

This church was built to serve the substantial number of new houses built in the early years of the last century; it was begun in 1910 and opened in 1911. The architects were Haslam & Ravenscroft of Reading. Of James Haslam I can tell you nothing. Ernest Ravenscroft’s father was a Reading architect who had been active between around 1880 and the First World War; Ernest went on to design a number of houses, churches and public buildings between the wars, and this appears to be one of his first jobs. This church is not without its architectural aspirations: it may be tucked away in a suburban development, but it is the only stone-built church we will see today and its lofty proportions are quite ambitious. Although some of the details are obviously Edwardian, the overall design is on the conservative side for that date. The internal columns, and the smoothed stone dressings, are of Bath stone.

Apart from a well-drawn and well-coloured war memorial window of St George towards the west end of the south aisle, all the stained glass is by Heaton, Butler & Bayne of London: the main east and west windows, and the south windows in the chancel opposite the organ, were probably all installed at the time the church was opened.

The organ, on the north side of the chancel, was built in 1912 by William Hill & Son and the style is a smaller version of several from that period heard by the Club on its North Wales trip last year. Since the early 1890’s, the company had been headed by Dr Arthur Hill, the grandson of the founder, who had trained as an architect in Sir Gilbert Scott’s office and had unwillingly switched profession to take over the family firm. By the time this organ was built, he had rather lost interest and the firm was effectively run by the very able team of managers and craftsmen working for him. The tonal outlook tended to be slightly brighter and bolder than that of many other major firms of the time and the cases, as here, were derived from designs made by Arthur Hill some years earlier. Two stops, Fifteenth and Mixture, have since been added on a clamp attached to the Great soundboard, maybe by Walkers prior to 1981, or by Ernest Davey who tuned the organ when in the care of Hill Norman and Beard. Walkers have cared for it since 1981; currently Sebastian Meakin tunes this instrument.

This organ is highly regarded locally and two of the Berkshire Association’s younger members play here regularly – Huw Jones, who is Acting Director of Music and Chapel Organist at Stowe School, and Paul Manley, who is going to give the demonstration.

Great		Swell		Pedal
Open Diapason	8	Stopped Diapason	8	Bourdon	16
Hohl Flute	8	Salicional	8	Flute	8
Dulciana	8	Voix Celestes	8
Principal	4	Principal	4	Great to Pedal
Fifteenth	2	Horn	8	Swell to Pedal
Mixture	II
				Compass: 58/30
Swell to Great				Trigger swell pedal
				2 + 2 combination pedals