The St Philip's Hill, Norman & Beard 'Continuo' organ

The Hill, Norman & Beard 'Continuo' organ at St Philip's Anglican Church was manufactured in 1964 and installed in 1967 by the Australian subsidiary of English organ builders Wm. Hill & Son and Norman & Beard Ltd.

It is a single manual pipe organ of 56 notes and four stops — Stopped Diapason 8 ft., Prestant 4ft., Doublet 2ft. and Larigot 1-1/3ft. It is recorded in the Supplement to historic organs of New South Wales, by Graeme D. Rushworth and on the website of the Organ Historical Trust of New South Wales.

In operation in Melbourne from 1927 to 1974, when the parent company was wound up, Hill, Norman & Beard (Australia) Ltd fulfilled many orders, including the prestigious new organ for Melbourne Town Hall. Its order books are in the custody of the University of Melbourne Archives. The St. Philip's organ is recorded as job no. ACT719.

The organ is very suitable for a small church that has fine acoustics (though we sometimes wish the organ had a pedal bass!).

The restoration project

Brilliant!

That is the sound of the St Philip's organ, after restoration work in January 2010.

A big project for the St Philip's Parish and CAMRA in 2009 was to raise money to restore the organ. As well as proceeds from the Twilight Fair, there were profits from CAMRA's 2009 performances and generous support from other musicians, including Classical Opera-tives, Igitur Nos and the Royal School of Church Music.

The restoration work was completed by Ian D. Brown & Associates of Ballina.

The organ was recommissioned and blessed by the Bishop of Canberra & Goulburn, the Rt Revd Stuart Robinson, at a special service on St Philip's Day, 1 May 2010.

Pictures by Leighton Mann and Trevor Bunning.