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 presented by John Carbery Evans JP of Hatley Park and moved to its current position by Arnolds of Thaxted in 1962 – when the width was reduced slightly and an electric blower added.

By the late 1990s it was in need of cleaning and an overhaul, which was undertaken 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; there are several of the instruments in the area.

The organ has two manuals (rows of keys) and pedals, three stops on the Swell (upper row), four on the Great and one on the Pedal.

It has three couplers connecting the two rows of keys together and the pedals to the manual, the connection between the keys and pipes being mechanical. The pipes of the Swell are enclosed in a box with shutters which can be opened 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 ‘his’ Bevington, for in 1883 he commissioned an 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 (in Solihull – there is a GWR engine called Olton Hall.) and then to Pudleston Court, Leominster, Herefordshire (the link contains a reference to G E Wright, near the bottom of the page), 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.

• Hear the organ being played in Hatley St George church – Ave Maria (the Gounod/Bach setting) – Mike Roberts of Two Lads and a Laptop with cellist Nick Ingles.

• Hatley St George church – The Chapel of St James the Greater.
• More about Bevington organs on the Wikipedia website.
• More about ‘stops’ on the Wikipedia website.
• Services – in Hatley St George and St Mary’s Gamlingay.
• Photo gallery – Hatley St George church.
• Online giving: as noted in the St Mary’s newsletter, dated 7th April 2023, St Mary’s Gamlingay carries the financial commitment for the Hatleys, which is incorporated into the parish; your donation goes to the Parochial Church Council.

Visiting Hatley St George church

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

The address is

Hatley St George church
Main Street
Hatley St George
Cambridgeshire
SG19 3HP

Grid reference

TL  TL 27742 51126
Easting  527742
Northing  251126
Latitude  52.143664
Longitude  -0.134648
Grid reference link

Plus code  4VV8+F3 Sandy

What three words  launched.collected.sifts

_{Page created 25 January 2019 and updated on 7th April 2023. ▲}