1835     

Decision to build the Church

1836     

First stone laid

1838              

Church consecrated with box pews seating more than 600

No chancel, St George's Chapel or central aisle

South-East porch may have been included then or added later

1846     

A second organ installed - One of them was in the gallery

1855              

Chancel built

Tower clock installed (see below - Features)

1870     

Gas lighting installed on standards down the side aisles

1883              

Box pews replaced with present pews

Central aisle created

New pews placed in chancel with carved poppy-head ends

New tiling throughout

Chancel ceiling boarded in panels with moulded ribs

Flat ceiling added to nave (in pale grey & salmon tints)

Organ moved from gallery, enlarged, and placed in the newly-built St George's Chapel which also contained a choir vestry

Hot-water based central heating system installed

Paving placed around Church, iron gates & railings

1904              

Chancel enlarged (with rounded end)

Present choir vestry built (Reredos and painted panels came sometime afterwards)

1914     

Electricity installed, in place of gas lighting

1919     

War memorial rood screen installed

1946     

Area where the choir now sits designated as the memorial (St George's) Chapel)

1959              

Pipe organ replaced with an electric one

St George's Chapel moved to where the organ had been

Font moved to where choir now sits

1968     

Completion of Lady Chapel (where the Prayer Corner is now)

1978     

Gas-fired heating boiler installed

1979     

New South-East porch removed as unsafe

1983     

Pipe organ installed in the gallery (see below - Features)

1995?              

Some pews removed at the front

Nave altar and rails installed

Font moved back to earlier position under the gallery

2003     

New lighting installed (November)

Windows

Organ

The new organ is an Allen electronic organ:

Our new Allen organ instrument is great instrument. Like the organ we lost in the fire, the Allen has two manuals and a full pedal board. However, unlike the pipe organs (at both churches) which had any number of idiosyncrasies, which was part of their charm, of course, our new instrument is based on leading edge digital technology and will not be 'unpredictable' or 'sensitive' as the old instruments were and will not require routine maintenance. Unlike the old instruments the new organ will remain unaffected by temperature and humidity. Some may remember how I used to take the old organ a bowl of water from time to time to help maintain an reasonable flow of humid air into the bellows. Now the only water needed is to lubricate the nut behind the keyboard !

The old pipe organ that had been in the gallery had 10 stops; 4 on each manual and 2 on the pedals (plus couplers between them). The Allen has 34 speaking stops, each note of which is based on samples of authentic sounds from various 'real' organs from Europe and the USA. Additionally, each of these 34 ranks of virtual pipes is available to us in four distinct 'flavours' of sound (effectively 136 ranks of pipes). This means that at any one time all stops may be of 'English Cathedral', 'American Classic', Neo-Baroque' or 'French Romantic'. Each being best suited to an appropriate repertoire of music.

The principal speakers for the organ are set high on the north wall by the gallery. This is as close as was practical to where the sound used to originate with our old instrument. However, there are also some smaller antiphonal speakers located in St Augustine's chapel. These will be used when the piece being played requires an 'echo' effect for example, or if there's a need for 'smaller' sound, perhaps to support a small service in the chapel or in the chancel. The organ can easily be moved to be played from either side of the church; it is on a moveable platform and there are two connection points for it, or if the occasion warrants it, it may be moved completely out of the way.

Now that we are using our re-born church, it is also great to play the relatively new Clavinova piano. This also is a lovely digital instrument with a good piano sound and feel, so it is very easy to use by one accustomed to a conventional piano. Like a piano it has a fully weighted keyboard that replicates the feel of real piano (that throws a hammer, lifts a damper and strikes the string). This action is graded so that the top keys are lighter than those lower down; a similar effect as found on a 'real' piano. The Clavinova also has a sostenuto pedal which enables a chord to be sustained while the melody is played against it. The piano also has a vast array of alternative voices that are appropriate for playing more contemporary Christian music.

Both instruments are flexible, adaptable, can integrate with each other or other digital instruments, can connect with the PA and require no regular maintenance.

Now for the science bit - In digital technology the use of 'sampled' sounds does not mean that when one presses a key the sample previously taken from a 'real' instrument is played (like playing a recording). What actually occurs is a complex computing process that takes the 'sample' as a starting point; almost as an artist may select a particular tube of paint. Early technology used to take a sample then process it for higher or lower notes (accelerate it for a higher note or slow it for a lower), that is not the case now. Now there are individual samples available for each and every note. That sample is then processed to create an individual sound using programs that calculate the 'attack' (the formation of the sound; the initial effect striking the sting or of air moving into a pipe until it is fully sounding), the 'decay' (the immediate fall off in sound after the key has been played, the 'sustained' sound (the sound produced while the key is held) and the 'released' sound (as the key is released and the string is dampened or the air pressure is released). In the case of the piano, the weight and force used on the key is added to the computation of the sound. In addition there are processes that deal with further acoustic qualities such as volume (each pipe or string relative to the others), resonance and reverberation and of course tuning. The technology that is used for the 'Grand Piano' sound not only uses a library of sampled sounds for each individual note, but also for each note sampled for soft to loud variations. Further (!) it can recreate the resonance of the strings when the damper pedal is used and there's a process to recreate the uneven silencing of strings that is experienced as dampers comes to rest.

Our new instruments have an enormous palette of sounds and it has been great fun to explore the options. Both instruments are great assets in the wealth of musical talent and resources that we now have at our disposal for praising God.

Clock

The original 8 bells have been re-hung and can now be played using an electronic keyboard (since the old Carillon was detroyed in the fire)

The Bell from St Augustine's Church has also been hung and is used as the 'tolling' bell for Services and Funerals

Organ

A restored and rebuilt Rest Cartwright Organ incorporating pipework from a Hunter Pipe Organ.

A mechanical action (tracker action) organ originally built in 1919 by the South London company of Rest Cartwright.

Bells

Clock

A relatively rare ‘Tucker' two-train, dead beat escapement with a wooden rod pendulum

Built in 1855, so 150 years old in 2005

Maintained by Gillett & Johnston

Keeper of the clock: Clive Husselbury 

Carillion

Used to ring the full octave of eight bells

Organ Details

Rest Cartwright were a small family business very well known for producing some fine instruments.  Their organs often incorporated new ideas and were generally considered to be interesting instruments that were more tonally imaginative than many of their contemporaries.

The additional pipework originally came from the Hunter Pipe Organ installed in the Chapel of the Princess Mary's Village Homes in Addlestone.  The Hunter Pipe Organ itself was acquired by the Church in 1981 when the Village Homes were redeveloped.

The organ weighs about one ton (1000 kg) and comprises 522 pipes, using around 1000 cubic feet of air per minute.

The electrical blower producing the air is constructed in the wall-space in the tower, behind the gallery.

The pipes are made variously of lead & tin, or of zinc, or of wood and the longest pipe is 8 feet (musical length 16 feet) whilst the shortest pipe is one quarter of an inch.

The lowest note is 32 cycles per second and the highest over 1000 cycles per second.

Apart from the materials for the pipes and the keyboard, the organ is made exclusively of timber, leather and phosphor-bronze wire.  The organ case has a fine oak facade.

The organ was rebuilt by Organ Design & Construction Ltd of Thames Ditton and was previously installed in Thornton Heath Baptist Church.

Organ Specification

Great                                 Swell

Open Diapason 8                Viola da Gambe 8

Stopped Diapason 8            Flute 8

Octave 4                            Stopped Bass 8

Fifteenth 2                          Horn 8

                                          Principal 4

Pedals                               Couplers

Bourdon 16                        Swell to Great

Bass Flute 8                       Great to Pedals

                                          Swell to Pedals