St Finbarr's Catholic Church, Ashgrove
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
St Finbarr's Catholic Church, Ashgrove
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012, 2017 (last updated November 2017)
The foundation stone of the present St Finbarr's Church, dedicated to St Finbarr of Cork, Éire, was laid by Archbishop James Duhig on 25 September 1955.
The 1957 Whitehouse Bros organ at St Finbarr's Catholic Church, Ashgrove
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (September 2005)]
The 1957 Whitehouse Bros organ at St Finbarr's Catholic Church, Ashgrove
[Photographs by David Vann (May 2012)]
The organ is situated in the rear gallery, and was built by Whitehouse Bros in February 1957 at a cost of £1,348.1 Although the firm had been employing electro-pneumatic action in their organs from the 1930s onwards, the action here is tubular-pneumatic. This was possibly the last of their instruments to use this form of action, and possibly the last such instrument in Australia.
The pipework is completely enclosed, apart from the lowest 10 pipes of the Bourdon, and the swell pedal is unusually fitted with a small door. The Bourdon 16ft has a compass of 30 notes only, and possibly originates from an earlier instrument where it served as a Pedal stop. It does not operate as a melodic bass as in earlier instruments such as that at St Margaret's School, Ascot. Alternatively, the Bourdon 16ft was possibly intended to become a pedal stop. The instrument was clearly designed so that a pedalboard, and possibly also a second manual, could be added.
In late 2017, Ian D. Brown and Associates of Ballina releathered the bellows and replaced the pneumatic puffers.2
| MANUAL Bourdon Open Diapason Salicional Flute COUPLERS Sub Octave Super Octave |
16 8 8 4 |
(30 notes only, CC to f; top 18 notes from Open Diapason) (stopped wooden bass; open metal treble) |
Tremulant
Tubular-pneumatic action
Compass: 61 notes
No pedals.3
Stop Tablets on the 1957 Whitehouse Bros organ
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
____________________________________________________________________
1 Whitehouse Bros List.
2 Ian D. Brown and Associates of Ballina Newsletter (December 2017), p. 2, rpt. in The Sydney Organ Journal, vol. 49, no. 1 (Summer 2017-18), p. 45.
3 Specification noted by G. Cox, March 1974.