St Andrew's Presbyterian Church

Oliver Street, Grafton

Built c.1955 John Compton Organ Co., London
2 manuals, 3 ranks extended, 2 couplers, electro-pneumatic action

The following information and photographs were sent to OHTA by Les Delaney [July 2018]:

The organ in St Andrew's is the Compton 'Miniatura B' and was installed 13th September 1959 in memory of those fallen.

Unlike other organ builders, Compton built their instruments using mass production and therefore produced 'models'. In the 1930s they introduced a model called the 'Miniatura' which was intended for the smaller church or chapel.

The Miniatura came in 2 forms. Firstly there was the Miniatura II which had 2 ranks of pipes (Diapason and Gedeckt) and the Miniatura III which had 3 ranks of pipes (Diapason, Flute, Gemshorn). After the second world war, the Miniatura II and Miniatura III were renamed to Miniatura A and Miniatura B respectively.

The Compton Organ Factory was based in North Acton – an area in the west of London and that is where this organ would have been built along with many others for churches and chapels around the UK but with some exported. At this time, the company would have also been building or rebuilding larger instruments and also building electronic organs.

Unlike traditional organ builders where are a rank of pipes to each stop, Compton used the 'unit' or 'extension' system just like they did in their cinema organs and so in the case of their Miniatura models there was either the 2 or the 3 rank of pipes all fully enclosed – just like their cinema organs!

Compton really were an organ builder like no other! As early as the 1920s, they experimented with electronic sounds and in the 1930s came up with the 'melotone' which was attached to their cinema pipe organs from 1935 to 1939 and provided ethereal effects. This was developed into a complete electronic organ and by 1939 they were producing electronic organs for both church and cinema. After world war two, the company produced a whole range of electronic organs. They stopped producing pipe organs in 1964 but carried on building electronics up until 1971.

Source: Chris Lawton, https://comptonorgans.yolasite.com/

The specification is:

Great to Pedal reversible thumb piston
Solo to Pedal reversible thumb piston
3 thumb pistons to Solo
3 thumb pistons to Great