St Botolph Aldersgate Restoration of the Green/Speechly organ

The organ was installed in the new church by Samuel Green in 1791, using pipes from an older Green organ. It was the gift of Seddons the upholsterers. It had the following stops:

Great (GG AA – e³) Swell (f-e³) Pedal (GG – cº)
Open Diapason I Dulciana pulldowns
Open Diapason II Stopped Diapason
Stopped Diapason Principal
Principal Cornet III
Twelfth Trumpet
Fifteenth Hautboy
Sesquialtra III
Cornet IV (short compass c¹)
Trumpet

It was completely rebuilt by Henry Speechly in 1867, retaining the case, Great chest and most of the flue pipes. The centre tower of the case and the carving beneath it were altered at the same time. The front was moved forward, and the back panelling was pushed out into the passage to accommodate the new Swell.

The resulting organ has been little tampered with. In 1926, Hill, Norman & Beard raised the wind pressure, re-voiced the reeds, replaced the pedal action with pneumatic, and provided an electric blower.

Speechly’s organ survives largely intact, though HN&B in 1926 replaced the pedal action with pneumatic (including the shared Bourdon on the Swell), and re-voiced the reeds, with loaded tongues and harmonic trebles.

In 1999-2000 Goetze & Gwynn Ltd (advisor John Norman) restored the organ without alteration. The case was restored by Chris Wells and Charles Marsden (including gilding the new front pipes in the middle tower, which had been replaced with zinc ones). This organ had the following stops:

GREAT (in order on chest, from front)

Open Diapason 1791marked , spotted metal, C – dº in front
Dulciana 1867cº – f³, bass from Stopped Diapason
Stopped Diapason 1867C – bº stopped, c¹ to f³ harmonic
Cremona 1867cº to f³, cleaned with new tongues in 1926?
Principal 1791plain metal, c¹ to f³ with tuning slides
Flute Harmonique 1867 c¹ to f³ harmonic
Fifteenth 1791 bass pipes are slightly different from the other Green pipes
Sesquialtera 1867with 1791 pipework, C 2' 1 1/3' 1', g² 4' 2 2/3' 2', no tuning slides
Trumpet 1867revoiced 1926, c² – b² harmonic, c³ – f³ flues

SWELL (in order on chest from back)

Double Diapason 1867 C – B outside box
Open Diapason 1791ex Great, spotted metal
Voix Celestes 1791ex Dulciana, draws Gamba simultaneously (1894?)
Stopped Diapason 1791 bass ex Great
Principal bass 1791, treble 1867
Piccolo Harmonique 1867
Mixture 1867C 2' 1 1/3' 1', g² 4' 2 2/3' 2'
Gamba 1894? in place of 1867 Clarion
Oboe 1867revoiced, f² – f³ harmonic 1926
Cornopean 1867 revoiced 1926

PEDAL

Open Diapason 1867
Bourdon 1894? using Swell Double
Tremulant 1894? or 1926

Couplers

Swell-Great sans serif stop knob label
Super-octave brings on Sw-Gt sub-octave, so that e.g. Great c¹ plays Swell cº
Swell-Pedal sans serif stop knob label
Great-Pedal also has an on-off rocker pedal on the bass return of the pedal recess

The combinations are at present set as follows (numbering from bass):

1 Swell DD OD Pr Mix Corn (nothing off)
2 Swell OD Pr (others off)
3 Swell StD Picc (others off)
4 Great Dulc
5 Great StD Pr
6 Great OD Pr 15
7 Great OD Pr Ses