The Scots PGC College Chapel, Warwick
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
The Scots PGC College Chapel, Warwick
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2011 (last updated May 2011)
The Scots PGC College in Warwick results from the amalgamation in 1970 of two separate colleges: The Presbyterian Girls' College, established in 1918, and The Scots College, established in 1919. Affiliation was ceded by the Presbyterian Church to the Uniting Church in 1977.1 The College Chapel originated as the Methodist (subsequently Uniting) Church on the corner of Guy and Grafton Streets, Warwick. This stone church had been opened on 10 December 1875 and further enlarged in 1900 and 1930.2 The entire building, including the organ, was moved to the present site under strict heritage control, where it was opened in April 1997.3
The Second Warwick Methodist Church, opened in 1875
[Photograph: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland]
The organ was originally a single-manual mechanical-action instrument of seven speaking stops built by B.B. Whitehouse & Co. of Brisbane. It was described in December 1908 as being under construction for the Methodist Church in Warwick,4 and was presumably completed in 1909.
The specification was as follows:
| MANUAL Open Diapason Stopped Diapason [Bass] Stopped Diapason [Treble] Dulciana Voix Celeste Principal Flute [Treble] Flute [Bass] PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Manual to Pedal Octave Coupler |
8 8 8 8 8 4 4 4 16 |
Compass: [58/27]
Mechanical action.5
This was one of at least five single-manual mechanical-action instruments built by B.B.Whitehouse & Co around this time, the others being for the Presbyterian Church, Ithaca (c.1908), the Scots Church, Clayfield (c.1908), the Presbyterian Church, Toowong (1909) and the Wooloowin Methodist Church (1911). The Warwick instrument appears to have been almost identical with the one for the Wooloowin Methodist Church. Both instruments had six ranks on the manual, including two divided stops, and one rank on the Pedal. The main difference between the two was that the Wooloowin organ had a Closed Horn 8ft whereas the Warwick one had a Principal 4ft.
The Warwick organ was rebuilt with electro-pneumatic action and enlarged to two manuals in 1964 by Whitehouse Bros. It was placed at this time in a new position in the church, and three stops were added:
| GREAT Open Diapason Dulciana Flute SWELL Violin Diapason Stop Diapason Salicional Principal Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Bass Flute COUPLERS Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Great Swell Super Octave Swell Sub Octave Swell to Great Super Swell to Great Sub |
8 8 4 8 8 8 4 8 16 8 |
A A |
[1964] [1964] [1964] |
The organ with its new case in the college chapel
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
The instrument was further enlarged by David Cahill of Warwick in 1997, when both the organ and the church itself were moved to their present location. The organ was placed in a new "swallow's-nest" case over the main door of the chapel. Three of the stops added at this time came from the 1910/1924 Whitehouse organ from Nundah Methodist Church (originally the Great Open Diapason 8ft, Great [Rohr] Flute 4ft & Swell Salicional 8ft).7
| GREAT Open Diapason Rohr flöte Dulciana Principal Twelfth Fifteenth SWELL Gedackt Gamba Principal Piccolo Larigot Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Flute COUPLERS Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Great Swell Octave Swell Sub Octave Swell Sub Octave to Great Swell Octave to Great |
8 8 8 4 2-2/3 2 8 8 4 2 1-1/3 8 16 8 |
A A |
Swell tremulant
Compass: 61/30
Detached stopkey console
Balanced swell pedal
Electro-pneumatic action.8
David Cahill at the refurbished Whitehouse 1964 console
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]
_____________________________________________________________________
1 http://www.scotspgc.qld.edu.au/history - accessed March 2011.
2 Description supplied with photograph, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
3 Personal communication to G. Cox from David Cahill, 2003; Plaque on building, cited by Trevor Bunning, August 2010.
4 The Brisbane Courier (10 December 1908), p. 2.
5 Specification supplied to G. Cox by Keith Lawson (organist of Warwick Methodist Church), 1974. Compass supplied by David Cahill from internal inspection, 2011.
6 Specification noted by G. Cox at Warwick Methodist Church, 1974.
7 Details supplied by David Cahill, via David Vann, 2003.
8 Specification noted by Trevor Bunning, August 2010.
[Photographs by Trevor Bunning (August 2010)]