Henry Jones 1886

The church in which this instrument is situated is a magnificent building exhibiting the typical medieval architecture found in many of our finest ecclesiastical buildings. According to historical records the church is notable for having possessed one of the earliest pipe organs in England dating from about 1455. There were 36 pipes in the case (front) and this is assumed to be the compass of the original organ. No part of this original instrument remains.

The current organ could be described as a typical mid range, late Victorian instrument as found in the average English parish church. It has one or two stops that distinguish it from some of the others of this size and these include a Celeste on the Swell (possibly a later replacement which might have replaced another 8' stop on the chest but also possibly original) as well as a Mixture on the Great together with choruses from 8' - 2' on each manual. It is situated on a gallery in a fairly large building but suffers from the fact that a large and ancient heavy rood screen rather impedes the sound from reaching into the body of the church past the large sanctuary area. Sadly, because of this problem, the church authorities have had to resort to a large second-hand digital instrument which mitigates the problem of providing enough volume to accompany a full church. The digital instrument installation isn't the worst of examples but neither is it the best. The pipe organ itself remains little used although it is in fairly good working order.

Henry Jones was born in 1822 at Folkestone Kent, to one Pilcher Jones a cabinet maker. He was one of five children. At 16 he was apprenticed to Joseph Walker of Tottenham, London and set up on his own from Brompton, London in 1845. Early work consisted mainly of repairs to instruments from other makers. He married a Susannah Spain in 1849 and took on his own apprentice. For the next ten years he built various smaller instruments before being awarded contracts to build larger ones including one for the International Exhibition of 1862. From then on, he continued to build modest sized church instruments as well as the occasional larger instrument both in the UK and abroad. He was succeeded by his son and died in 1900.

His instruments tend to be of good quality and materials with the typical specifications and tonal qualities of many mid to late Victorian organ builders. There is no particular "house" style" that differentiates his work from that of many other Victorian organ builders but his instruments fulfil the purpose for which they were built, namely to accompany a congregation and provide an acceptable vehicle for much of the organ music typical of the period.

The specification of the current instrument is as follows:

GREAT ORGAN

Open Diapason 8' 
Rohr Flute 8' (wood) 
Dulciana 8' 
Principal 4' 
Harmonic Flute 4' 
Fifteenth 2' 
Mixture II Rks 
Trumpet 8'

Swell to Great
Swell Sub Octave to Great

SWELL ORGAN

Open Diapason 8' 
Lieblich Gedeckt 8' (wood) 
Salicional 8' 
Vox Angelica 8' 
Gemshorn 4' 
Piccolo 2' 
Oboe 8' 
Cornopean 8' 

+ Mixture III Rks (15:19:22)

PEDAL ORGAN

Open Diapason 16 (wood), 
Bourdon 16' (wood) 
Violoncello 8' (wood)

Swell to Pedal
Great to Pedal

+ Trombone 16'
In order to increase the tonal resources of the instrument slightly, we have added a Mixture to the Swell (sourced from the existing pipework of the instrument) and a 16' reed to the Pedal organ from another organ. We have also introduced additional couplers to extend the manual divisions. Whilst the manual divisions are fairly well apportioned, the Pedal organ lacks any development and has to rely on couplers in order to produce any sort of proper backing to the rest of the organ. 

Henry Jones 1886: £125.00

In preparation
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