THE ORGAN IN ST ANNE’S CHURCH, BAGSHOT

The first organ in St.. Anne's was a 2-manual instrument built by the London firm of Henry Speechley. It had been transferred to the church from the Chapel-of-Ease which was on the site of the old cemetery. In 1899 a 3-manual organ was installed by J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd., at a cost of £655. Some of the old Speechley pipe-work was retained in the new organ.  The specification had been drawn up by Edwin Hickox F.R.C.O. (Organist from 1894-1937) in consultation with Sir Walter Parratt (Organist of St. George's Chapel, Windsor) who gave the opening recital. The Great and Swell organs had mechanical action, while that of the Choir and Pedal organs had pneumatic action.

In recent times the mechanical action had become unacceptably stiff, while the pneumatics had become very worn and unreliable. It was obvious that major work was needed for the organ to remain playable and, after careful consideration and visits from a number of organ builders, a re-building contract was placed with Kenneth James & Son Ltd. in the spring of 1983.

It was decided to replace the manual and pedal actions completely with new electric actions, giving uniform touch on all manuals and enabling a Choir to Great coupler to be added. The old manual keys were retained together with the decorative edgings. The opportunity was taken to improve the specification (as far as space would allow) to bring the sound of the organ into line with modern ideas for accompaniment and the interpretation of organ music. The Great Large Open Diapason was removed to make way for a 2-rank Mixture (19. 22). The bottom octave of the Great Small Open Diapason had been placed in the Choir organ screen facing down the South aisle. These pipes, together with some of the redundant Large Open Diapason pipes, have been utilised to give two new pedal stops, Principal 8’ and Fithteenth 4' (situated in the Choir organ). The pipes in the chancel screen were the bottom octave of the Great Large Open Diapason and these have been integrated to form the bass of the remaining (small) Open Diapsaon, thereby keeping the Great organ all together. On the Swell organ, the Lieblich Bourdon 16’ (which was duplicated on the Pedal organ) was removed, the old Oboe 8’ was put in its place at 16' with new bass pipes, and new 3-rank Mixture (22. 26. 29) was placed in the old Oboe position. On the Choir organ the old Dulciana 8' was made into the new Flageolet 2' with new top octave pipes. The Clarionet 8' was removed and replaced with the new Trompette 8’ of French character. A new concave and radiating pedal board to Royal College of Organists’ specification was fitted. The stop action (except for the pedal stops) remains mechanical.

The specification of the organ is now as follows:-

Great			Swell
Open Diapason	8		Open Diapason	8
Wald flute	8		Stopped Diapason	8
principal.	4		Echo Camba	8
Harmonic Flute	4		Voix Celeste	8
Fifteenth	2		Principal	4
Mixture II	19. 22		Fifteenth	2
Sw. to Gt.			Mixture III	22. 26. 29
Ch. to Gt.			Oboe	16
			Horn	8
Choir (unenclosed)			Pedal
Lieblich Gedackt	8		Bourdon	16
Suabe Flute	4		Principal	8
Flageolet	2		Flute Bass	8
Trompette	8		Fifteenth	4
			Fagotto (Sw.)	16
Sw. to Ch.			Gt. to Ped. Sw. to Ped. Ch. to Ped.
3 combination pedals to Gt. 2 combination pedals to Sw			Mechanical reversible pedal for Gt. to Ped.

J.W.H.
January, 1985.

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