St Paul's Anglican Church

Powlett Street, Kyneton

Built by John Smith, Bristol 1854 for St Paul's Church, Melbourne
Installed present location 1889 by George Fincham
Alterations by Keith M. Lavers 1930
Rebuilt by George Fincham & Sons 1971
2 manuals, 25 speaking stops, 8 couplers, electro-pneumatic action

St Paul's Anglican Church, Kyneton: the exterior from the south-west
[photograph from Google Images – flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/3012338158/sizes/l/in/photostream/]

Historical and Technical Documentation by John Maidment
© OHTA, 2013 (last updated February 2013)

St Paul's Church, Kyneton was designed by local architect William Douglas in Early English Gothic style and built from bluestone 1856-60. The western tower was added in 1927-8 to the design of architects Gawler & Drummond.¹

St Paul's Anglican Church, Kyneton: organ sited in the chancel
[photograph by John Maidment (late 1960s)]

The organ, sent out to St Paul's Church, Melbourne, on the site of the present Cathedral, was one of five instruments sent out to Melbourne from John Smith, 91 Stokes Croft, Bristol. This firm also built instruments for St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill (later sent to St Paul's Church, La Trobe Terrace, Geelong and subsumed into a larger organ), the Melbourne Athenaeum, for the Philharmonic Society (later moved to Holy Trinity Church, East Melbourne, where it was destroyed by fire), and two private orders for W.G. Dredge and one for R. Smith St Kilda, one of these probably being the organ now at St John's Church, Bega, NSW.² The firm was run at the time by John Smith junior, who had been born c.1794 and died in 1860. His son Henry (born 1820) was in Melbourne 1853-55 installing and maintaining organs.³ The link with Melbourne was probably through the Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe, who had family and religious connections with Bristol.

George Fincham carried out work on this instrument on several occasions before its removal from St Paul's Church (on the site of St Paul's Cathedral) and later hall to Kyneton in August 1889.

St Paul's Anglican Church, Kyneton: console as adapted by K.M. Lavers
[photograph by W.G.S. Smith (late 1960s)]

The organ was renovated by Keith M. Lavers in 1930⁴, who appears to have carried out the following work:

• Replacement of the music desk, manual keysets and pedal board;
• Installation of a balanced swell pedal;
• Placement of the Swell Bourdon on a separate tubular-pneumatic windchest and its derivation to the Pedal Organ;
• Insertion of a Viole d'Orchestre on the Swell Bourdon slide;
• Placement of the Pedal Open Diapason on tubular-pneumatic action.

When inspected in 1966, the specification read as follows:

Compass: 56/30
Mechanical action to manuals and stops; tubular-pneumatic action to Swell Bourdon and Pedal Open Diapason
5 composition pedals
Balanced swell pedal (Lavers)⁵

In 1971, this organ was rebuilt by George Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd. New electro-pneumatic action was installed throughout, a new detached stopkey console provided, and the organ placed centrally on the rear gallery. A number of tonal changes were made at the time so that the instrument is almost unrecognizable from its original form. Sadly this work took place before appropriate heritage controls and the formation of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia and would not be permissible today.

Compass: 61/30
Electro-pneumatic action
Adjustable thumb and toe pistons
Reversible thumb & toe pistons⁶

St Paul's Anglican Church, Kyneton: organ sited in the chancel
[photograph by John Maidment (February 1966)]

1 Victorian Churches, edited by Miles Lewis. East Melbourne: National Trust of Australia (Victoria), 1991, p.132.

2 See 'List of organs erected by J. Smith & Sons', in D.J.R. Whaley, Nineteenth Century Organ Building in Bristol; the Work of John Smith & Son, 1814-1860. Bristol: the author, 2001.

3 Ibid., pp.72-74

4 Australian Christian World, 27 June 1930, p.21

5 Specification noted by John Maidment February 1966

6 Specification noted by John Maidment 1972