Organ matters - Organs matter!

A top-class builder would take pains to get the scaling, pressure and so on exactly suited to the situation, while others might use stock pipes and not put such skill into the voicing.  It could make quite a difference to the result.

A clamp is an extension of the soundboard to allow another stop to be added.  It can work well if properly done, although putting extra capacity on a soundboard not designed to take it might compromise the result.

A lot of it is to do with the quality of the work - an organ voiced by Arthur Harrison would be as good as anything available at the time and better than most.  Also, Harrison was influenced by George Dixon, who was clever at devising schemes which got the most out of what was available and avoided redundancy.  Thus, the Harrison/Dixon team could produce a small organ which was complete and versatile, whereas others were content to provide a selection of mostly soft stops which the local cathedral organist would use most often to accompany a choral service, plus a big diapason to lead the hymns.

Father Willis's "Model" organs were similarly clever, and an influence on Dixon.  The mobile "Stainer Organ" in St. Paul's Cathedral is the best known example (Mander added a Great Mixture) and is recorded as having been capable of leading a full congregation when the big organ was out of action as well as having been mistaken for its larger brother on many occasions.

Great: Open Diapason, Lieblich Gedact, Principal, Fifteenth
Swell Open Diapason, Gemshorn, Cornopean
Pedal: Bourdon

There are other, similar jobs around the country.  I can think, offhand, of Dennington and Groton in Suffolk, the Song School at St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, Great Horkesley, Foxearth and Stapleford Tawney in Essex (these two a bit bigger), Wolferton in Norfolk.

Other builders were less imaginative at getting the most out of a small number of stops.  Here's Binns at Stromness Parish Church, Orkney:

Great: Open Diapason, Rohr Flute, Dulciana, Principal
Swell: Geigen Principal 8, Gedact, Viole d'Orchestre, Vox Angeilca, Salicet
Pedal: Bourdon

You need a few more stops to get a really interesting Binns.  The same goes for Lewis - here's what he did at Woolverstone, Suffolk:

Great: Open Diapason, Lieblich gedact, Salicional, Octave
Swell: Geigen Principal 8, Rohr Flute, Geigen Principal 4, Horn
Pedal: Sub Bass

or Dundrum, Co. Down:

Great: Open Diapason, Lieblich Gedact, Dulciana, Flute Harmonique 4
Swell: Geigen Principal, Rohr Flute, Viole de Gambe, Voix Celeste (all 8')
Pedal: Sub Bass

Small Bevingtons can be rewarding, especially if they run to a mixture, but at other times, especially later instruments, they can be deathly dull - like Little Horkesley, Essex (installed second-hand when the church was rebuilt after a direct hit from a land-mine in World War II):

Great: Open Diapason, Dulciana, Lieblich Flute 4
Swell: Stopped Diapason, Cor Anglais, Principal, Sub Octave Coupler  (the Cor Anglais is a gamba, as usual with Bevington)
Pedal: Bourdon

And so on. Sometimes, these gormless-looking instruments sound rather good and much better than one would expect, like the Hope-Jones that used to be in St. Mary's RC Church, Croydon, where the only upperwork was a 4' Lieblich Flute in the Swell, although there were a lot of octave couplers (and a 16' Rohr Bourdon on the Great!).

Norman & Beard built dozens of small organs in East Anglia, which are generally pleasant and a cut above the rest, although maybe not over-exciting.  They each seem to have a particular character.

Acoustics can make a difference, too, but some of those little Harrisons were in fairly dead buildings.

I think it's the master touch that gives the magic.

A celeste tends not to work if you plant it next to the stop with which it's intended to beat.  They tend to pull each other into tune.  Therefore, you often find the celeste next to the diapason, so it may not beat properly.  The problem wouldn't arise for Whitlock because he was used to Compton unit organs with the ranks planted separately.  And Compton often provided a two-rank celeste, so the beat would be there already.  When you can get a diapason that beats with the celeste, the effect can be ravishing.

Absolutely!  I, too, went on such a course, but a lot longer ago (c.1970), and I got the chance to play the Addington organs at various other times.  I also played this one when it was at Cleveland Lodge.  It certainly is a most versatile and beautiful instrument.  The similar-sized (apart from its having inherited a full-length 32' Double Open Wood) at St. Sepulchre, Holborn, in the City of London is similarly adept at producing several quarts out of a pint pot (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N17580).

Having the Contra Oboe as the only reed has been tried elsewhere and has the advantage of providing a pedal reed by coupling as well as adding a special dimension to the manual possibilities.  Lord Dunleath's organ at Ballywalter PC, as rebuilt by Walker (http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=D05475) is another example, as is Wells-Kennedy's at Drumbo PC, Ballylesson (ww.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=D01451). Both were originally Conachers (the dominant builder in Ireland), the Ballywalter one being described as "strikingly gormless" (or some such term) by Lord Dunleath.  Incidentally, this one retained a Dulciana on the Swell at the rebuild, but this was replacedfive years later with a Sesquialtera.  Lord Dunleath said that no one missed the Dulciana but the Sesquialtera was immensely useful and would even stand in as an 8' chorus reed, which I found was indeed the case.

Trying to think which one....

However, when you think about it, until the later nineteenth century, all cathedral organs were designed to speak into the Quire with no thought given to how they sounded in the Nave. Edwardian is getting quite fashionable these days.

It is, as we've noted before,  an extremely awkward shaped building from the organ point of view, although I should imagine it has lots of potential as a compendium of different spaces for the various uses to which a modern city cathedral can be put.  I guess that, in the fulness of time, they will settle on something exciting and worthwhile.

I'm no expert, but the cognoscenti seem agreed that the tone-wheel Hammond had its own particular sound.

It's kind of ironic, isn't it, that we never think an electronic organ sounds quite like a pipe organ (at least, after we've heard it a few times), but similarly, nothing sounds quite like a Hammond except a Hammond!

Hammonds do seem to be immortal.  There was one in the Hall at Homerton College, Cambridge in 1978 when I did my education year there.  It was a very early one - I believe from the late 1930s - but it still worked, although it was inclined to smoke when excited.

I don't think you can hope to make much money on it, but one avenue worth exploring is the world of light music, especially groups who play music from the sixties.  Such pieces often included a Hammond organ and its very distinctive sound is sought-after.  Modern key-boards sometimes have a "Hammond" feature, but it doesn't sound the same and I have met several players who wanted to acquire a genuine Hammond.

I don't think so.  It was an amalgam of two organs, to a scheme by Virgil Fox, subsequently enlarged under the advice of Fred Swann.

Quite curious!  This church had the big 3 manual Father Willis/Rushworth from the old St. Paul's School, which they acquired when the school moved to Barnes and Mander built a new organ in the Chapel (which has itself been moved to All Saints, Dulwich and enlarged by David Wells).  The little Mander referred to here was built for Colet Court School the prep department of St. Paul's, moved to Wathen Hall at St. Paul's and replaced by a 'continuo' organ of four stops built by Lammermuir.  At this point, it presumably went to Portland, replacing the big organ which may have needed major work doing to it.  There was talk of returning the big organ to St. Paul's as part of the re-ordering of the "new" school.

I've sent the details to NPOR.  Good luck with it - Taylors built fine organs and the material you have to work with should be first class.

Again referring to the off-topic St. Anne's Mansions organ, some of the accessories (e.g. stop-keys?) would suggest alterations much later than either of the dates given.  Also, I suspect (after perusing the stop-list once more) that the given pitches may in some cases be incorrect.  The Pedal Octave might be at 8' and the Super Octave at 4', thus making a chorus based on the Grand Unison 16 (and possibly extensions of it).  The Solo Octave Clarionet should surely be at 4' pitch and the Musette might also be 4' as an octave to the Orchestral Oboe.  Apparently, both the Swell and Choir had 4' flutes but no 8' flute. The Great Doublette, given as 2' as it would be on a French organ, could conceivably be of two ranks 15.22 as in early Hill practice, or even 19.22.

That's my point really - it's listed as having thumb pistons in the survey (1975) but the pictures on ebay don't show any.

Thanks - I discounted that one because NPOR lists thumb pistons and the organ in the pictures has none.  Maybe they're older photographs, although they don't look to be so.....

Excuse the straying from topic, but when looking in NPOR I tried "Anne's" and found this rather remarkable residence organ in Queen Anne's Mansions, St. James, London:

http://www.npor.org.uk/NPORView.html?RI=N17974

Four manuals, 61 speaking stops, no mixtures but Pedal chorus to 2' and oddities including a Musette 2' on the Solo.  Built by Wedlake - it must have been his magnum opus.  Charles Pierce, the organ writer, scholar and composer was quite keen on him and his organ at St. Clement's, Eastcheap was rebuilt by the firm.

It seems to me that, since the instrument illustrated doesn't have thumb pistons, it can't be either of the organs in NPOR because the pictures are presumably recent.  Lytham is listed in Wiki as having a population of just under 50,000, so there would be a good many churches - the same article does indeed list various congregations in Lytham, St. Anne's, Fairhaven and Ansdell, including at least one that took over a former Baptist chapel, so my money is on it being one of those.

It's not either of the free churches listed in NPOR - their organs are listed as having thumb pistons and this one doesn't.  Douglas Carrington (who used to edit "The Organ") would probably know. He lives in Lytham.

I hope all the instruments will be cherished.  The Byfield, in particular, was a cracker - a surprisingly big sounding organ for its size.  I remember an odd spelling - 'Diaphason'.

I don't think so, although it was featured in "The Organ" and other journals from time to time.  It doesn't have that much history - built by Father Willis 1871-2, rebuilt by Harrison and Harrison 1933 (Great, Swell and Pedal first, the rest delayed through lack of funds), some alterations by H&H 1973-3, refurbished with some recasting by Mander 2001-4.  It would be interesting to see other quotes for the job, if they exist, and there is a wealth of stories about the organ and who played it over the years.

Ian Bell and Bill McVicker wrote a pamphlet "The Grand Organ" on the 2004 restoration.