Halifax & District Organists' Association

Although there may have been organs in the church much earlier, the first organ of which we have much knowledge is the one that the famous Swiss organbuilder, John Snetzler, built in 1766. It had three manuals and no pedals, and was located on a gallery at the west end of the nave. As was usual for an English organ of this period, the Great and Choir organs went down to G below the modern bottom C, whilst the Swell only went down to tenor C.

This organ was added to by Gray in 1836 and by William Hill in 1842 and 1869. The church was re-ordered in 1878, and a new organ, incorporating some Snetzler pipework, was built on the north side of the chancel by Abbott and Smith.

By 1926, the organ was in a parlous condition. Harrison and Harrison of Durham were invited to submit plans for a new instrument, and within a few weeks, Arthur Harrison produced a specification that is little different from the instrument as built. The new organ cost £7,000, of which half was given by a Mr. Standeven. The organ was installed during 1929, and opened by Edward Bairstow, the organist of York Minster.

Interestingly, an 8' open diapason from the Abbott and Smith instrument now stands on the swell organ in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge.

A small amount of Snetzler's pipework remains in the present instrument - the 8' and 4' flutes on the choir organ and the stopped diapason and open diapason no. 3 on the great are certainly Snetzler pipes. Whether any other pipes are Snetzler in provenance is debatable.

The organ was re-built in the 1970's by J.W. Walker & Co. Fortunately, very few changes were made either tonally or as regards the mechanism. The only significant change was that the great mixture was modified from a "harmonics" mixture of 17.19.21.24 to a quint mixture of 19.22.26. The instrument retains its tubular pneumatic mechanism from 1929. Nor have any aids to registration have been added since 1929: there are no general combination pistons and no sequencer, making this instrument one of the few remaining large organs in the UK without such modern gadgetry.