St Thomas' North Sydney

St Thomas' Anglican Church
cnr West and Church Streets, North Sydney

William Davidson 1904, rebuilt and enlarged Hill, Norman & Beard (Aust) 1974 (3/57 electric)

From SOJ February/March 1987, April/May 1988, Spring 2003:

The organ in St Thomas' was built in 1974 by Hill, Norman & Beard (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. and was their last major contract completed before they closed their factory at Clifton Hill in Melbourne. Wm Hill & Son and Norman & Beard Ltd continued to operate a small factory in London mainly producing small electric extension organs.

The St Thomas' organ has 3 manuals, 57 speaking stops, 12 couplers and a combination of electro-pneumatic and electro-magnetic actions. The pedal consists largely of extended ranks and the Great trumpet is unified and extended 7 times over 3 divisions. The Great and Choir fluework and the entire Swell division are free from extension. The console is connected to the organ chamber by a set of cables which is partly flexible and this enables it to be moved around at the front of the nave.

The organ used a substantial amount of material from a large, 3 manual, 41 stop instrument built by noted Sydney builder, William Davidson. It was the largest old tracker organ in NSW and was completed in 1904, a Warden's Report at Easter of that year stating that Davidson had built it as funds permitted over a period of 22 years.

Although the organ was buried in a chamber at the front of this fine Blacket Church, these comments were made about it in 1953: "the tone of the organ is very good, all the fluework is mellow, the great diapason chorus both cohesive and brilliant while the open wood and quint stops on the pedal are very thrilling when heard in the nave ... one of the finest diapason choruses in Sydney. When the church agreed to have the Davidson organ removed, rebuilt and electrified, there was considerable desire on the part of the parish authorities to save these tonal qualities:

Click here to download a live recording (mp3 3.8MB)
Excerpt from a pre-service improvisation
Festal Evensong, August 1957.
John Davies (?), organ

Side chapel where the Davidson organ was originally built
Photo: MQ 2006

3 photos above obtained from HN & B in 1974 (JRM)

The specificaiton of the Davidson organ, as it was in 1953 is as follows:

Great
Bourdon
Open Diapason No.1
Open Diapason No.2
Stop Diapason
Principal
Harmonic Flute
Twelfth
Fifteenth
Mixture
Trumpet
Clarion

Swell
Bourdon
Open Diapason
Hohl Flute
Gamba
Voix Celeste
Principal
Wald Flute
Fifteenth
Mixture
Oboe
Horn
Tremulant

Choir
Open Diapason
Salicional
Gamba
Lieblich Gedackt
Gemshorn
Lieblich Flute
Piccolo
Clarionet
Vox Humana
Tremulant

Pedal
Sub Bourdon
Open Bass
Violon
Bourdon
Swell Bourdon
Quint
Violoncello
Flute
Flute

Couplers
Swell Octave
Swell to Great
Swell to Choir
Swell to Pedal
Choir to Great
Choir to Pedal
Great to Pedal

16
8
8
8
4
4
2-2/3
2
III-V
8
4

16
8
8
8
8
4
4
2
III
8
8

8
8
8
8
4
4
2
8
8

32
16
16
16
16
10-2/3
8
8
4

TC
TC

TC

TC
TC

(enclosed)

(no bottom octave*)

(from Swell Bourdon)
*

*
*

* from Pedal Violon 16

Compass 56/30

Mechanical action to manuals
Tubular-pneumatic action to Pedals
4 combination pedals to Great, 3 to Swell, 2 to Choir
Balanced Swell pedal
Lever Pedal for enclosed Clarionet of Choir

The 1974 organ was erected high in the south transept and was opened with a recital by Robert Boughen of Brisbane on October 26th. The total cost was $55,000, a very large amount of money for those days. At the opening service, the churchwardens and Parish Council recorded their 'grateful thanks to Mr William R. Clark, organist of St Thomas' for his administration of the building programme, Mr Warren C. Southward for his engineering supervision of the project, Mr Colin Attenborough for his honorary technical services and the Rector, ( Revd Harry Edwards) for his enthusiastic support and guidance.

The tonal result of the work was not unanimously considered successful and there have been some recent attempts to effect improvements. The Festal Trumpet 8 on the Choir has yet to be installed, nor has a case on the exposed pipework.

Couplers
Great and Pedal Piston Coupler
Choir to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
Swell Sub Octave
Swell Unison Off
Swell Octave
Choir to Great
Swell to Great
Swell to Choir
Choir Sub Octave
Choir Unison Off
Choir Octave

Compass 61/32

Two balanced Swell pedals

5 general pistons
7 Swell pistons
7 Great pistons
7 Choir pistons
7 Pedal toe pistons
7 Swell toe pistons
Full organ toe piston

Reversibles thumb pistons:
Swell to Pedal
Choir to Great
Swell to Great
Great to Pedal
Choir to Pedal

General Cancel
Swell Cancel
Great Cancel
Choir Cancel
Pedal Cancel
Great to Pedal toe reversible

4 indicator lights

Controls for Swell and Choir Tremulants