St Stephen's Church, Gardenvale: exterior
[photograph by Ken Falconer (12 December 2008)]
St Stephen's Church, Gardenvale: exterior
[photograph by Ken Falconer (12 December 2008)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by John Maidment
© OHTA (last updated December 2014)
St Stephen's Anglican Church was designed in a modern Gothic idiom in brick by noted ecclesiastical architect Louis R. Williams. The foundation stone was laid on 10 March 19281 and the completed building consecrated on 15 July 1928.2 It was originally envisaged that there would be a tower, but this was never built. The building has been modified to create a link to the adjacent church hall.
St Stephen's Church, Gardenvale: Louis R. Williams sketch of the exterior showing projected tower
[photograph from The Argus (12 March 1928)]
The organ was built for an unidentified English location – 'Sherborne' is written inside the instrument.3 The Hill, Norman & Beard order books, housed at the University of Melbourne Archives, mention that the builder was 'Maskell' but surely Wordsworth & Maskell, of Leeds, a partnership that existed until 1888. The provision of 61 note manual compasses was unusual at the time. It was brought out to Australia by Hill, Norman & Beard and erected on a platform in the north transept of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne in May 1928 as a temporary organ while the Lewis organ was dismantled and rebuilt.4 It would appear that this firm made new casework, silvered the façade pipes and modified the console.
St Stephen's Church, Gardenvale: organ
[photograph by Ken Falconer (12 December 2008)]
The organ was moved to St Stephen's Church the following year and opened on Sunday 7 July 1929 by Dr A.E. Floyd.5 It was erected by Hill, Norman & Beard.
The instrument at this stage had the following specification:
| GREAT Open Diapason St Diap & Clarabella Dulciana Principal Swell to Great SWELL Open Diapason Stop'd Diapason Gamba Salicet Horn PEDAL Bourdon Bass Flute Great to Pedals Swell to Pedals |
8ft 8ft 8ft 4ft 8ft 8ft 8ft 4ft 8ft 16ft 8ft |
A A |
Compass: 61/30
Mechanical action to manuals and stops
Tubular-pneumatic pedal action
Balanced swell pedal6
St Stephen's Church, Gardenvale: console
[photograph by Ken Falconer (12 December 2008)]
In 1980, the organ was renovated by Melbourne organbuilder John S. Parker. A number of tonal alterations were made as advised by the St Stephen's organist Mark Rascynski. Some of the earlier ranks were transposed to provide the new material.
| GREAT Open Diapason Stop'd Diapason Principal Fifteenth Mixture Swell to Great SWELL St Diap & Clarabella Gamba Principal Larigot Horn PEDAL Bourdon Principal Choral Bass Great to Pedals Swell to Pedals |
8ft 8ft 4ft 2ft II 8ft 8ft 4ft 1-1/3ft 8 16ft 8ft 4ft |
Compass: 61/30
Mechanical action to manuals and stops
Electric pedal action
Balanced swell pedal7
1 The Argus 12 March 1928, p.13
2 The Argus 16 July 1928, p.9
3 Pers.comm. John S. Parker, c.1980, although the piece of timber may have been mixed up with another secondhand organ that went to Pt Chalmers, New Zealand and came from Sherborne School, Dorset
4 The Argus 15 May 1928, p.17
5 The Argus 6 July 1929, p.24
6 Specification noted John Maidment 1966
7 Specification noted from photograph taken by Ken Falconer 12 December 2008