Vincent Extension Organ

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	Updated 14 June 2004 - under construction	Send mail to Iain Stinson


The beginning In February 2004 I saw a small advertisement in The Organist's Review offering for sale a three rank Vincent unit extension organ. This was of some interest to me because I had played a number of these instruments during my teenage years. The Sunderland firm of Vincent had built the organ at my grammar school (South Shields Grammar-Technical School for Boy) and I spent many happy hours playing this instrument during my seven years at the School. The Vincent firm also built a number of the organs in our local area: many of these were also unit extension organs built to a common design. The School organ had four ranks (Diapason 16ft to 2 ft, Flute 16ft to 2 ft, Salicional 8ft and 4ft and an 8ft Trumpet rank). This organ is still existent and the specification can be found in the UKNPOR. The organ was (and still is) located in two chambers on either side of the stage (Diapason unit on the right and other units on the left in a swell box); the console was located in the centre and front of the stage centre a little below floor level. The Diapason 16ft octave was built from 6 pipes: each pipe produced two notes (e.g. CC and CC#) - there were flaps at the top end of each pipe that were electromagnetically opened to produce the higher note. You could produce quite a rattle by playing the two note that were produced by each pipe at the same time.		VINCENT 2 manual and pedal extension organ, 3 ranks, 20 stops, detached console, ideal small church or home. £500. Tel: 01695 624231
Back to the plot I responded to the advert and found that the organ for sale was in a church in Wigan (about 35 miles away from where I live) and I arranged to go and visit. The instrument had been built for a Methodist Church in Greenhough Lane Wigan in 1954 and subsequently moved to the congregation's new building in Coop Lane Wigan around 1970. The organ had been moved by the Vincent firm and modified to fit its new location.
The console was located on the right-hand side of the church and the pipework located in a chamber at the front of the church. The chamber was really a separate room and the organ spoke into the body of the church through a small (about 4ft x 3 ft) aperture. The instrument had three ranks (Diapason 8ft to 2ft, Flute 16ft to 2 ft and Salicional 8ft & 4ft). All of the pipework was all enclosed except for the bottom 12 notes of each rank.
By 2001 the church buildings in Coop Lane Wigan had become surplus to the requirements of the Methodist community and were sold to a Christian Fellowship Church in 2002. Their style of worship did not really make use of the pipe organ and so the instrument was redundant. They also wanted the space occupied by the console in the church for their music group and the pipe chamber for further accommodation or storage.
When I went to view the organ it was playable and sound just the same as those other Vincent unit organs I had played in my youth. I measured the various components of the organ (very carefully): the chamber was only 101 inches high and there was scope to lower the swell box. I had in mind installing this in our garage - having wanted a playable pipe organ at home to use alongside my three manual Phoenix Electronic organ. For a number of years I had be rebuilding a small two manual tracker action pipe organ in the garage but unfortunately had run into considerable problems because of the restricted height of our garage. After some deliberations I determined that I could just about fit in the Vincent organ (by further reducing the height of the swell box and further mitring of the large pipes) but would have to dispose of the other, incomplete, organ. Offer made and accepted Discussions were held with my wife and, with her agreement, I went ahead and made a firm offer for the three rank Vincent. My offer was accepted and I prepared to dismantle the instrument ready to ship it back to our garage.
However before this could begin, I needed to dispose of the parts of a number of pipe organs that I had collected over the years that were awaiting reuse in the garage. I was reluctant to simply throw them away and delighted when David Wyld (Managing Director of Henry Willis & Sons, who now have their main works in Liverpool (in the old Rushworth and Dreaper premises)) kindly agreed to take most of the parts from the garage: most of the pipe work was to be melted down for recycling but the the small two manual tracker organ which I had partially rebuilt has been taken for reuse at a future date.

Iain Stinson's Home Pipe Organ Project