St Matthias' Anglican Church

Church Street, Richmond, Victoria

Built by Bevington & Sons, London, c.1853
Inst 1853 St Stephen's Anglican Church, Richmond
Inst 1869 Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Kew
Organ sold 1879 and inst St Matthias' Anglican Church, Richmond at unknown date
Organ removed 1971 George Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd and broken up
2 manuals, 10 speaking stops, 3 couplers, mechanical action




St Matthias' Anglican Church, Richmond
[J.T. Collins Collection, La Trobe Picture Collection,
State Library of Victoria (3 August 1968)]


Historical and Technical Documentation by John Maidment
© OHTA, 2012 (last updated August 2012)

The foundation stone of the first St Matthias' Church was laid on 18 May 1870.1 The foundation stone of a new church building was laid on 9 February 1885. The cost was estimated at £5000 and it would provide accommodation for 500 persons.2 The architects were Nathaniel Billing & Son.3 This stone building included a lofty aisled nave with clerestory, but a proposed tower was never built. It was demolished in the early 1970s.



St Matthias' Anglican Church, Richmond: the organ
[photograph by Bill Smith (circa 1970)]

The organ was built by Bevington & Sons, London and was installed at St Stephen's Church, Richmond in 1853.4 The Argus reported:

THE NEW ORGAN.—The new organ for St. Stephen's Church, Richmond, has arrived from England. It has been placed in the church, and was first tried on Sunday last. Report speaks very highly of it, as to its tone, size, and quality. It is said to be rather larger than the one in use at St. James's.

It was sold to Holy Trinity Church, Kew in 1869 when replaced by the present organ by J.W. Walker. When Holy Trinity obtained a new organ from William Anderson in 1879, the Bevington organ was sold5 and it was installed at St Matthias' Church at an unknown date, either in the 1870 church building or that erected in 1885.

The organ survived at St Matthias' Church until 1971 when it was sold to George Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd and the parts used in other organs. Until then, it retained its mechanical action, distinctive case, pipework and console, although the drawstop labels had been renewed and inappropriately labelled.


GREAT ORGAN
Open Diapason
Bass Flute
Claribel
Principal
Fifteenth
Swell to Great

SWELL ORGAN
Stop Diapason
Gamba
Harmonic Flute
Fifteenth
Oboe

PEDAL ORGAN
Bourdon
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal

8
8
8
4
2



8
8
4
2
8


16


CC-BB Stopped Diapason Bass
TC








wooden Piccolo 2
missing





  

Compass: 56/30
2 composition pedals to Great
Lever swell pedal
Mechanical key and stop action
Plain metal pipework



St Matthias' Anglican Church, Richmond: the organ console
[photograph by Bill Smith (circa 1970)]




St Matthias' Anglican Church, Richmond: the organ
[photograph by John Henwood (circa 1960)]

 

1 The Argus, 19 May 1870, p.5

2 The Argus, 10 February 1885, p.4

3 The Argus, 24 September 1884, p.3, 5 September 1885, p.6

4 The Argus, 7 July 1853, p.3

5 E.N. Matthews, Colonial Organs and Organbuilders (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp.147, 138