St John's College Chapel (Anglican)

University of Queensland, St Lucia

FIRST ORGAN: H.W. Jarrott, Brisbane, 1960, for St Paul's Anglican Church, Taringa
Installed in this location 1986 H.W. Jarrott, Brisbane
2 manuals, 4 speaking stops, electric action
Removed c.1992, sold 2003 to David Cahill, Warwick, and broken up

SECOND ORGAN (still at this location): H.W. Jarrott, Brisbane, 1992
2 manuals, 16 speaking stops (8 ranks), electric action

PRESENT ORGAN: Kenneth Tickell & Co., Northampton, UK, 2011
2 manuals, 16 speaking stops, mechanical action

St John's College Chapel, St Lucia
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (September 2014)]

Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012, 2016 (last updated May 2016)

St John's (Anglican) College was founded in 1911 by Archbishop Donaldson of Brisbane in the same year that the University of Queensland accepted its first students. The College was first located in a number of houses at Kangaroo Point, directly across the river from the newly founded University. The move of St John's College to the St Lucia campus of the University began in 1956, and the present College Chapel was opened in 1981.¹

[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (September 2014)]

First Organ.

The first organ in St John's College Chapel came from St Paul's Anglican Church, Taringa, and was once thought to have been made by Benjamin F. Cribb for his residence (at an unknown location, possibly in Ipswich). It was described as having originally had cardboard pipes, which were replaced by the Whitehouse firm with metal pipes.² General tuning and maintenance at Taringa was noted in the Whitehouse Bros records at least from 1922.³ The instrument was overhauled in 1933, and there were further unspecified repairs in 1934-36. Overhauling continued throughout the 1940s, and an electric motor and blower were supplied in June 1945.⁴

The attribution of the Taringa instrument to Benjamin F. Cribb appears, however, to have been erroneous. Its origins can now been traced to the Homestead of the Gore family at Yandilla, where it was built by Mr Gerard Ralph Gore around 1897. The organ was originally of one manual and pedals, with three divided manual stops, but without pedal stops.⁵

Following the replacement of the original cardboard pipes (presumably before 1922), the instrument was rebuilt with electric action in 1960 by H.W. Jarrott of Brisbane. The original pipework was spread at this time over two manuals to produce the following specification:

Compass: 61/30
Direct electric action.⁶

This organ was installed at St John's College in 1986 by H.W. Jarrott, and there were proposals in 1990 to enlarge it,⁷ but these appear to have been overtaken by plans for a completely new organ. The instrument was removed to storage in 1992 at the workshop of H.W. Jarrott in Sherwood, and sold to David Cahill of Warwick in 2003.⁸ It has since been broken up.

Given the history of replacing pipes and rebuilding, it is not surprising that none of Gerard Gore's instrument survived beyond 1960: David Cahill reported that the chest, action and console of the instrument he purchased in 2003 were made by H.W. Jarrott. The pipework derived mostly from A. Palmer & Son of London, apart from the 12-note stopped wooden bass of the Open Diapason, which was of Whitehouse manufacture.⁹

Second Organ (still at this location).

The second organ in St John's College chapel was built in 1992 by 'Bert Jarrott Pipe Organs' of Brisbane, and is still located in the gallery of the college chapel.

The 1992 Jarrott organ in the gallery
of St John's College Chapel, St Lucia
[Photograph (lacking the pedalboard) by David Vann (September 2012)]

[Swell] tremulant
Attached stop-key console
Radiating concave pedalboard
3 combination thumb pistons to Great
3 combination thumb pistons to Swell
3 general toe pistons
1 full organ toe piston (reversible & blind)
1 Swell to Great thumb piston
1 Great to Pedal thumb piston
Compass: 61/30
Direct electric action.¹⁰

Console details of the 1992 Jarrott organ
[Photographs by David Vann (September 2012)]

Present Organ.
 
The present organ was built by Kenneth Tickell & Company, of Northampton, UK, and completed in November 2011. It was installed in memory of Edward James Spencer Cripps (1951-2009). The case is of Australian mountain ash, with pipeshades and grille carved in limewood to the design of John Brennan. These depict gum leaves and incorporate a coat of arms, a magpie and a kookaburra.¹¹

  

The 2011 Kenneth Tickell organ
in St John's College Chapel, St Lucia
[Photograph by John Maidment (October 2011)]




Swell shutters immediately behind the grille
on the 2011 Kenneth Tickell organ
[Photograph by John Maidment (October 2011)]




Pipework of the Great Organ
in the 2011 Kenneth Tickell organ
[Photograph by John Maidment (October 2011)]

Kenneth Tickell's company has built a number of notable organs in the UK, including Worcester Cathedral Quire Organ, St Mary's Cathedral, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Keble College, Oxford. Sadly, Kenneth Tickell passed away in July 2014.  His only other instrument in Australia is a chamber organ at Pilgrim Uniting Church, Adelaide.¹²

Great tremulant
Swell tremulant
Mechanical action
Compass:  58/30
Balanced swell pedal.¹³

Console and stop jambs of the 2011 Kenneth Tickell organ
[Photographs by John Maidment (October 2011)]

____________________________________________________________________________

1 St John's College, The University of Queensland, 'History' at http://www.uq.edu.au/stjohns - accessed January 2012.

2 Personal communication to G. Cox from J.H. Whitehouse, March 1974.

3 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1922-1940), pp. 116, 117, 179, 245, 457.

4 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1922-1940), pp. 388, 369; Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), p. 299.

5 Personal communication to G. Cox from Mrs Shenton (organist at Taringa), 1974.

6 Specification noted by G. Cox, 1974. Date and details supplied by H.W. Jarrott.

7 Organ Society of Queensland Newsletter, vol. 18, no. 2 (October 1990), p. 37.

8 Personal communication to G. Cox from David Cahill, August 2007.

9 Personal communication to G. Cox from David Cahill, August 2007.

10 Specification noted by G. Cox, 2002; Date supplied by H.W. Jarrott.

11 OHTA News, vol. 36, no. 1 (January 2012), pp. 6-7.

12 Kenneth Tickell and Company Ltd, Pipe Organ Designers and Builders. http://www.tickell-organs.co.uk – accessed August 2014. Biographical details of Kenneth Tickell are reproduced in Organ Australia (Spring 2014), p. 29.

13 Specification from OHTA News, op. cit.