St Peter, Sowerby
The present church of St.Peter, Sowerby is a Grade 1 listed building completed in 1766, the same year as the opening of Snetzler’s famous organ in Halifax Parish Church, now the Minster. This fact is more than mere co-incidence. The Halifax Organ was actually completed in 1763, confirmed by Snetzler’s signature inside the windchest. However the Halifax officials had not reckoned with the people of Sowerby, who had just begun the construction of their new building in that same year. In those days places like Sowerby were “chapelries” of the parish of Halifax, and had to pay dues there, a bit like today’s “common fund”. Sowerby had already lost one dispute with Halifax in the ecclesiastical court, so when they heard of the new organ ordered for Halifax they mistakenly assumed they were going to have to contribute towards it, and went to law again to oppose the faculty for the organ. This was the main reason for the three year delay in getting the Halifax organ transported from London and installed in the church.
One of the reasons for the listing status of St.Peter’s, is the apse plasterwork, by Giuseppe Cortese, who was also responsible for much of the interior of Somerset House in Halifax, a building recently restored and which is now the venue for civil marriages in the town.
Despite their opposition to the Halifax organ, it did not take too long before Sowerby got one of their own!
The first Organ was built in 1791 by John Donaldson, then of York but formerly of Newcastle. Of the two dozen or so Organs known to have been by him, only one still exists. It is in the Holywell Music Room, Oxford, but was originally built for Belvedere College, Dublin in 1790. It seems to have been the instrument built immediately prior to the one for Sowerby. From it we can tell that had the Sowerby Organ survived, it would have had a historical importance equal to that of the church itself.
The Sowerby Donaldson Organ probably had an early form of swell-box called a “nags head”, and a total of 11 speaking stops, but there were no pedals. It was located in the west gallery. When the second organ was installed, it was sold to the Wesleyan Chapel, Bradford Road, Islington, Manchester, (not far from today’s Piccadilly Station.)
The second Organ was built in 1861 by the still young firm of Conacher of Huddersfield. This firm had reformed itself in 1854, after a disastrous fire in the works. Their very first new organ after that date had in fact been built in 1857 for St.Mary’s Cottonstones, now also part of Sowerby Parish. Perhaps this had an influence on John Rawson who gave the Sowerby organ “....in memory of the late William Priestley, a consistent churchman and promoter of local music” to quote the “Halifax Guardian at the time”. It was also originally located in the west gallery, there is a very old photograph in existence showing a screen of diapered zinc pipes in that location. There were eight great organ stops, five swell and one pedal, a total of 714 pipes. It cost £250.
In 1878 the church was extensively (but sensitively) re-ordered into more or less today’s appearance. At that time the organ was moved from the west gallery and installed in the present north-east corner position. What happened to the Conacher organ after 1914 is unknown.
The existing Organ was built in 1914 by James Jepson Binns of Bramley, Leeds. It is still substantially as he left it, although two tonal changes were made during an overhaul in 1972, the swell wind pressure was reduced, and the Great Trumpet re-voiced with “harmonic trebles”, making it into an extremely effective stop. There is some evidence that when the organ was first specified, some mistakes were made with the layout, needing on-site modifications to parts of the mechanism. In addition, this is the only Organ I have come across where the 32' “Harmonic Bass” is derived from the 16' “Open Diapason”, rather than the 16' stopped rank. Was this also an on-site mistake? It’s effect can only be described as devastating! Despite all this, the organ makes a fine sound in an excellent acoustic. It has 2 manuals and 21 speaking stops, with tubular pneumatic action to the manuals and pedals.