Month3

Featured Organ

St. George, Ticknall

GREAT

SWELL

Open Diapason

Stop'd Bass Wald Flute

Treble (sic!)

Keraulophon

Dulciana

Principal

Harmonic Flute

Fifteenth

(1 blank)

4TC

Double Diapason

Open Diapason

Stop'd Diapason

Principal

Mixture ll

Oboe

Cornopean

8 TC

PEDAL

Open Diapason

Bourdon

16 29 notes

Couplers: 3 unison

Compass: 56 / 30

Action: mechanical

Balanced swell pedal

Information source:-

“Historic Organs in Derbyshire”

The present church, a tall, aisled building of 1842, originally possessed a GG-conmpass 1-manual organ of eight stops described in Walker's orderbook as "a poor thing". Its replacement bears the label: "J. W. Walker / Organ Builder, 1869"

The "Churchwarden" appearance of the case (with three traceried and crocketed Gothic gables) is certainly redolent of an earlier decade, while Mr. Bruce Buchanan (of the current Walker firm) considers that some other features of construction arc also old-fashioned for the date.

As supplied in 1869 the Swell was of Tenor-C compass (continued down by the Great Stop'd Bass) and had the following stops: Open Diapason, Stop'd Diapason, Principal, Piccolo, Oboe, blank.). There were also two spare sliders on the Great, while the Pedal (25 notes) had but one stop.

The intriguing question will always remain: why should an old-fashioned and somewhat inadequate instrument have been installed when, after only two years, the makers were required to radically alter it and enlarge it? Was there a gross miscalculation on Walker's part, or was it a case of trying to off-load an old instrument (or parts of an instrument) on to an unsuspecting country congregation?

Be that as it may, the 1871 rebuild proved to he of a much more successful and durable nature. The Swell was extended to full compass and given its present-day specification, the old, small-scale Pedal Bourdon becoming its Double Diapason rank. The Pedal Organ was provided with two new stops of 25 pipes each (and it is not clear when the present 29 was achieved) while the Great received on one of its spare sliders a 56-note Dulciana whose bass was shared with the Keraulophon - a rare example (at such an early date) of two narrow-scaled stops on a small Great. The only regret is that the remaining spare place on the Great Organ was not furnished with the three ranks of Mixture pipes for which it had been prepared.

A balanced swell pedal and an increase to the Pedal compass seem to have been the only alterations to the 1871 state. At some date the organ was moved from its former west gallery position to a site at the east end of the north aisle where it is conveniently adjacent to the choir stalls. The acoustics of the plastered interior of this large church are excellent and the organ continues to give a good account of itself.

Specification