Castle Hill Baptist Church – exterior (photograph by Peter Liebeskind from Churches Australia website [September 2016])
Historical and Technical Documentation by Peter Johnston and others
© OHTA, August 2022 (last upgraded September 2022)
Castle Hill Baptist Church – exterior (photograph by Peter Liebeskind from Churches Australia website [September 2016])
Historical and Technical Documentation by Peter Johnston and others
© OHTA, August 2022 (last upgraded September 2022)
The organ after its restoration completed in 2015 (photograph by Peter Johnston [July 2022])
The organ was built in 1888 by Nicholson & Lord, Walsall, UK for the Presbyterian Church, Glebe, NSW where it was opened on 23 July 1888.1
The original specification follows:
| Great Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Dulciana Principal Wald Flute Fifteenth Swell Bourdon Open Diapason Lieblich Gedacht Viol D'Amour Geigen Principal Mixture Cornopean Pedal Bourdon Couplers Swell to Great Swell Octave to Great Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Tremulant |
8 8 8 4 4 2 16 8 8 8 4 III 8 16 |
2 composition pedals to Great
2 composition pedals to Swell2
In 1969 it was sold and purchased by the Castle Hill Baptist Church. Arthur Jones moved the organ and made a number of tonal alterations, all in the spirit of the time, completed in 1973.
Following its installation at Castle Hill by Arthur Jones, the specification was as follows:
| Great Open Diapason Gedackt Principal Wald Flute Fifteenth Mixture (19-22-26) Swell Gedackt Viol D'Amour Principal Fifteenth Sesquialtera Cymbal (29-33-36) Krummhorn Cornopean Pedal Subbass Bourdon Principal Flute Principal Principal Mixture Posaune Shalmey Couplers Swell to Great Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Tremulant3 |
8 8 4 4 2 III 8 8 4 2 II - III III 16 8 16 16 8 4 4 2 V 16 4 1 |
prepared for prepared for 1 |
Peter Johnston writes that in 2014, his next-door neighbour who, at that time, was a Deacon at CHBC, asked him to have a look at the Castle Hill organ. The church had recently done some major building work and the organ had taken on a lot of dust, etc. It was in a sorry, unplayable state. After consulting a recently deceased Sydney organbuilder, a team of three volunteers naively took on the monumental task of making the organ functional. This included undoing most of Arthur Jones’s modifications.
• The Great Open Diapason 8ft, Swell Open Diapason 8ft and Bourdon 16ft are all back in their rightful positions.
• The central section of the case (previously in storage) has been reinstalled at a slightly lower level than originally.
• The beautiful Pitch Pine organ case has been restored.
• The wind pressure has been increased to the original level, resulting in a remarkable transformation. A second blower has given the instrument wind security.
• The Swell Fifteenth 2ft of random pipes has been replaced with a Piccolo 2ft, pipes donated by Mark Fisher.
• The Pedal Posaune 16ft has been relocated to the C# side where the tops of the resonators can only be seen with difficulty.
• The electric chest that extended the Open 8ft on the Pedal Organ has been used to extend the Pedal Bourdon 16ft to 8ft and 4ft, pipes donated by Mark Fisher.
Swell box interior showing the restoration work (Peter Johnston [April 2015])
Inside the swell box, the Open Diapason 8ft needed a new toe board cover and a new rack board. Poplar was used to distinguish new work from original. One of the grey off-note pneumatic chests from 1885 for the bottom octave of the Bourdon 16ft is visible on the right.
The partial restoration took about 18 months of working one-and-a-half days a week. It has been an amazing success. Unfortunately, the organ is rarely used.
| Great Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Principal Wald Flute Fifteenth Mixture Swell Bourdon Open Diapason Gedackt Viol D'Amour Principal Piccolo Sesquialtera Cornopean Pedal Bourdon Bass Flute Flute Posaune Couplers Swell to Great Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Tremulant |
8 8 4 4 2 III 16 8 8 8 4 2 II & III 8 16 8 4 16 |
(1 - 19 zinc pipes in case) (wood) (1 - 4 zinc pipes in case) (wood, bottom octave stopped) (19.22.26 in spotted metal, 1973) (wood & metal, bottom 12 on 1885 pneumatics) (1 - 7 grooved to Gedackt) (wood & metal) (bottom octave grooved to Gedackt) (metal, on a clamp, replaced Fifteenth in 2015) (1-24 original 17.19.22; from middle C, 12.15 in spotted metal, 1973) (electro-pneumatic) (from Bourdon, electromagnetic, 2015) (as above) (1 - 12 half length, electromagnetic) |
Compass: 56/30
Mechanical action to Great and Swell
Electric action to Pedals4
1 Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 1888, p.4
2 Ibid
3 Sydney Organ Journal, May 1973
4 Specification noted by Peter Johnston July 2022
The organ after 1973, before the recent work, with the Pedal Posaune visible (photograph by Nicholas Appleton [July 2007])
The Nicholson & Lord organ after its installation at Castle Hill by Arthur Jones (photograph by Nicholas Appleton [July 2007])
The console after 1973 (photograph by Nicholas Appleton [July 2007])
The console in 2022 (photograph by Peter Johnston [July 2022])
Great and Swell pipework (photograph by Peter Johnston [July 2022])