Wesley Uniting Armidale

Wesley Uniting (Methodist) Church
Armidale

1879 Henry Willis & Sons, London. (2m., 15 sp.st., 3c., tr. & tub.pn.)

From 1998 OHTA Conference booklet:

The first Wesleyan service was held in the Armidale Court House in 1859. It was not until 1864 when the first Methodist church was built. 29 years later the present church was opened by The Revd George Lane. [1]

Of the small number of organs that the English firm of Henry Willis & Sons exported to N.S.W, only five remain essentially unaltered. The organ that can be found today in the Wesley Church, Armidale was originally purchased for the first St Stephen's Presbyterian Church located in Phillip Street, Sydney. It was installed in the rear gallery of the church by Sydney organbuilder Charles Jackson during Deeember 1879 and January 1880.

When the congregation moved in 1934 to the present St Stephen's Church in Macquarie Street, a new three manual Hill, Norman & Beard organ had been built for it. The redundant Willis was advertised for sale and in 1935 it was subsequently purchased by Wesley Church for £1,000. The instrument was erected by Hill, Norman & Beard in the centre of the church at the northern end. By the Iate 1960s it had become apparent that major repairs were needed. At that time Mr Tom Brown, a former student of Dr George Faunce Allman, was organist. During preliminary discussions it was contemplated to make tonal changes. Fortunately these were never brought about, thus preserving the organ's original and historical character. During the late 1970s the organ was used for teaching students of the Universityt Music Department. The action had become increasingly difficult to manipulate, thus highlighting the necessity of restoration. On 8 June 1980 the musicians of Armidale came together to launch a public appeal fund through a choral and organ concert.

In January-March 1983 Roger H. Pogson carried out restoration work which included cleaning, repairing and revoicing the reed stops, cleaning pipes and action, repairing the entire tracker action of manuals and pedal couplers, regulation of pipework, modifying the pedal windchests, and raising the wind pressure from 2-5/8" to 3''.[2] The restoration work was done in two stages, the second being completed in 1985. A heritage grant of $10,000 was awarded, the consultant being Kelvin Hastie.[3]

Compass: 56/30
mechanical action to manuals
pneumatic action to pedals
3 couplers
general tremolo (by lever pedal)
3 composition pedals for Swell
balanced swell pedal

(1) Recollections, Wesley Church, Armidale, 1973.
(2) OHTA News Vol.8 no.3 July 1984, Article by Cecil Hill, pp.17-20.
(3) Personal Comment by Kelvin Hastie, June 1998.