Hatley

Click ‘Go to’ for details of the Hatley St George organ.

Holy Communion services at Hatley St George Church are held every second and fourth Sunday of the month.

Second Sunday – 11.00 am.
Fourth Sunday – 8.00 am.

In addition, the church is open on a Tuesday morning for your own private prayers.

There are also ‘special’ services at Easter and Harvest Festival.  At Christmas there is a Carol Service, usually at 7.00 pm on the third Wednesday of December, and (some years) a Christmas Day Carols and Eucharist Service at 11.00 am.

Hatley St George Church, St Mary’s Church Gamlingay and St Mary’s Church Everton are all part of the Benefice of Gamlingay with Hatley St. George and Everton.  Hilary Young is the Priest-in-Charge – this is her 2019 annual report to Hatley Parish Council.

• Christmas Carol Service.  This year’s service is on Wednesday, 18th December at 7.00 pm – followed by mince pies, sausage rolls and a warming drink.

NB  The church is normally locked – the key can be obtained from the farmhouse opposite.

St Denis’, East Hatley, is a redundant church set in a ‘live’ graveyard (under the auspices of the diocese).  The building is now owned by the Friends of Friendless Churches – until the FoFC has been able to complete its restoration project, it is not normally open.

Gamlingay

Morning prayers are said at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week at one of the Benefice churches.

St Mary’s Gamlingay is open from 9.30 am to around sunset every day.  The space is available for prayer, meditation or to look around and enjoy the building.

More details on the St Mary’s, Gamlingay, website.  Hilary Young, the Priest-in-Charge, can be contacted on 01767 650 587 / hilaryafyoung@gmail.com.

The organ in Hatley St George church

By Charles Hall of Norman Hall & Sons, Cambridge

The 1878 Bevington organ in Hatley St George church.

The organ was built by Bevington & Sons of London in 1878. It is one of their Model 5 organs and stood in a chamber/vestry on the south side of the old chancel.  It was moved to its current position by Arnolds of Thaxted in 1962 when it was made slightly smaller in width and electric blower was added.  It was presented by John Carbery Evans JP of Hatley Park. It was cleaned and overhauled by Norman Hall & Sons of Cambridge in 2000.

Bevington’s were in business between 1794 and 1941 with premises in the Soho area of London and there are several of the instruments in the area.

The organ has two manuals (rows of keys) and pedals.  It has three stops on the Swell (upper row), four on the Great and one on the Pedal.  It has three couplers that connect the two rows of keys together and the pedals to the manual.  The connection between the keys and pipes is mechanical.  The pipes of the Swell are enclosed in a box with shutters which can be open and closed to provide a form of volume control.

The stops are

Swell

Harmonic Flute 4
Stopped Diapason Bass 8
Gedact 8
Bell Gamba 8

Great

Principal 4
Dulciana 8
Claribel 8
Open Diapason 8

Pedal

Bourdon 16

Swell to Great
Swell to Pedal
Great to Pedal

Lever Swell Pedal

Mr Carbery Evans must have been pleased with their work as in 1883 he commissioned on organ for the hall from them.  It was a much larger instrument and was pumped by a hot air engine.  In 1899 a Mr G E Wright moved it to Olton Hall and then to Puddleston Court Leominster where it was altered by Hill & Sons.  It was then presented to Holmer Church in 1934 and installed by Ingram’s.  By 2010 it had been moved again and is now in St Mary’s Church Hay-on-Wye.

• More about Bevington organs on the Wikipedia website.
• More about ‘stops’ on the Wikipedia website.

_{Page created 25 January 2019 and updated on 29th October 2019. ▲}