St Aidan's Anglican Church
cnr Hat Hill Road and Great Western Highway, Blackheath
Charles Richardson 1902, repaired Pitchford & Garside 1972 (1/5 mechanical)
© PdL 2006
From SOJ Spring 1998:
Charles Richardson installed a one manual and pedal organ in 1902 with the following stop list:
Great
Open Diapason
Stopd Diapason Bass
Stopd Diapason Treble
Dulciana
Principal
Pedal
Bourdon
Couplers
Pedal Coupler
Octave Coupler
8
8
8
8
4
16
Compass 56/25
Mechanical action to manual
Tubular-pneumatic to pedal
Manual pipework enclosed except for Open Diapason.
In 1972, the organ was repaired by Pitchford & Garside when an electric blower was installed. At the same time, the swell box shutters were removed. In his book Historic Organs of New South Wales, Graeme Rushworth says "the organs built for Blackheath and Carcoar typify Richardson's small organ designs (a few stops on a single manual, with the 8' flute divided into bass and treble), simple cases of the 'post and rail' variety enclosing a flat of 23 Open Diapason pipes with the largest in the centre, the standard Richardson console of almost identical design to that of many J. W. Walker & Sons organs, and, finally, an organ bench of a distinctive design that was standardised on most of the organs of Charles Richardson and W. E. Richardson & Sons''.
Photos: TB (2 above)
5 photos above: Rodney Ford (Nov 2009)