Uniting (Congregational) Church (now closed)
Stevedore Street, Williamstown
B 1885 George Fincham.
2 manuals, 11 speaking stops, 3 couplers, tracker action.
Gt: 8.8.8.4.4.2. Sw: 8.8.4.8. Ped: 16.
Organ dismantled November 2006 and moved to
St Carthage's Catholic Church, Parkville after restoration.
This bluestone church with cement dressings in the Gothic style was built in 1870-71 to the design of Joseph Schneider. The main façade incorporates a large traceried window and an octagonal tower and slate-roofed spire to the north-west 86 feet high. The interior, which has a sloping floor, is lit by windows containing quarry glass with coloured borders. The fittings are of polished cedar.
The interior focuses upon an intact organ built by George Fincham at a cost of £325 and opened in January 1885, remaining in an exceptional state of intactness. The only changes have been the installation of electric blowing and the covering of most of the oak graining on the case with dark varnish. All of the metal pipes, including those in the façade, are of spotted metal and the flue trebles remain cone tuned. The mechanical key and stop action survives, together with the hand blowing arrangements. This is tonally one of the finest Fincham organs of the period.
The building was sold in 2006 and the organ has been restored and installed at St Carthage's Catholic Church, Royal Parade, Parkville by Wakeley Pipe Organs Pty Ltd.
Open Dia
Clarabel
Dulciana
Principal
Flute
Fifteenth
Sw to Gt
SWELL
Open Dia
Stop Dia
Gemshorn
Oboe
PEDAL
Bourdon
Gt to Ped
Sw to Ped
8
8
8
4
4
2
8
8
4
8
16
gvd bass
(open trebles)
gvd bass
TC
Compass: 56/30
3 composition pedals to Great
Trigger swell lever
Mechanical key and stop actions
Attached drawknob console
Scrolled keycheeks
Victorian Churches, edited by Miles Lewis. East Melbourne; National Trust of Australia (Victoria), 1991, p.88
E.N. Matthews, Colonial Organs and Organbuilders. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1969, p.157
Specification noted by John Maidment June 2006
Photos: JRM Sept 2006
