ORGAN OF THE MONTH 47: May 2006
St
Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton |
||
| 
| |
|
Click on the thumbnail to obtain a full-size image |
||
This is the second of three organs visited as part of the Association's "Organ Crawl" around Wolverhampton city centre in February this year.
The present instrument is substantially that built by "Father" Willis in 1860, but the firm has rebuilt it several times with various alterations and additions. It was originally a two-manual tracker-action organ with the console in the same lofty position as the pipework. In 1882, a new console was provided under the organ on the South side (with the trackers running up the wall) and a Choir Organ was added.
In 1914, the organ was rebuilt with tubular pneumatic action throughout and electric blowing was applied for the first time. The present, electric, console on the North side of the choir stalls was provided during the 1971 rebuild, when various tonal modifications were also made, many of which proved less than satisfactory. Since then, care of the organ passed to Nicholson & Co, and various attempts have been made to improve the tonal scheme.