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Keyworth
St Mary Magdalene

Organ

The first organ (probably a harmonium) seems to date from the 1860s. A new organ was installed in the chancel in 1891. It was replaced in the 1960s, the new instrument being located at the back of the north aisle. Today, the pipes remain there, but the manual has been moved back to the chancel.

The earliest instrumental music played in the church of which we have evidence was provided in the 1840s by a small orchestra trained by the curate, Lawson Dykes, who also donated the instruments - they included single and double-bass viols, clarionet, trombone and serpent. The orchestra probably played in the minstrels’ gallery above the west end of the nave, which was removed in the restoration of 1870-2, by which time a harmonium seems already to have replaced the instrumentalists. The Master of the National School, Alfred Haskins, was also named as church organist in Whites Directories of the late 1860s. It may be significant that the glass in the small window at the west end of the chancel portrays somebody playing what appears to be a harmonium. This glass, whose date is unknown, may have been inserted at the time of the 1870s restoration, when a recently acquired harmonium would still have been a novelty and an apt subject for the glass.

Keyworth church has had two pipe organs. The first was installed in 1891 at a total cost of £181 and placed in the chancel. In 1963 it was replaced, at a cost of £1200, by a reconditioned second-hand organ, built in 1903. This had previously stood in a Baptist chapel on Southampton Row, London which was blitzed during World War II. Both manual and pipes were placed at the west end of the nave, relieving the congestion in the chancel created by its predecessor, but cutting off the organist from the choir. In 1993 the console was moved into the chancel, leaving the rest in the nave.

The present organ (originally hand bellows) was built in 1903 by Norman & Beard. The action is tubular pneumatic (since installation in Keyworth). It was acquired by Keyworth in 1963 as a reconditioned organ by Henry Groves & Son of Nottingham. It was upgraded in 1993-4 by Anthony Herrod (organ builder) with a new console and the installation of an electric action replacing the tubular pneumatic, together with replacement and additional speaking stops and accessories.

Specification

Couplers & Accessories

Swell to Great, Great to Pedal, Swell to Pedal, Swell suboctave, Swell octave, Swell unison off
Great & Pedal combinations coupled.

Pistons

Four general thumb pistons (Great) set as follows:

1: Clarabella, 2: Clarabella Principal, 3: Open Diap Principal, 4: Open Diap Principal fifteenth.

Four general thumb pistons (Swell) set as follows:

Four general toe pistons (Pedal) set as follows:

1: Bass Flute, 2: Bass Flute Bourdon, 3: Bourdon Principal, 4: Bourdon Principal Octave
Toe Piston - Swell to Great
Toe Piston - Great to Pedal