Fobbing

St Michael, Fobbing (Essex)

Barrel Organs in English Parish Churches

Improved barrel organ. Builder’s nameplate on case: ‘Bevington & Sons, Organ Builders, 48 Greek Street, Soho Square’. Purchased in 1843 for 65 guineas. It was in use until replaced by a harmonium c.1876 when Arthur Rayment, a former member of the congregation, was 15 years old. He remembered the ‘problems faced when asked to sing CM words to a LM tune or a LM hymn to a SM tune’. This could be because ‘Carey’s’ is labelled LM on the original tunelist, whereas the first section has been pinned twice which makes the metre 112th. The organ is operated from the rear. The softwood Gothic case has three panels of gold painted pipes. Restored in 1969-74 by the then church organist, Edward Smith, and fitted with a device to indicate which tune has been selected. Tunes recorded in 1996. Three green barrels x 12 tunes in a frame corresponding with the original handwritten tunelist pasted to the access door. The tunelist is headed: ‘the music arranged and set upon the cylinders, to give the effect of choice harmonies, by Mr H. Bevington, Organist of King’s College, London’.

References: Chelmsford Chronicle (2 Mar. 1906) p.6; The Musical Journal (Apr. 1906) p.57; Musical Opinion (May 1906) p.579; Phillips (1918); Hughes (1955); Boston (1959); Boston & Langwill (1967); Knights (1974); Roger Booty, ‘Barrel Organ Redivivus 2: Fobbing Church Barrel Organ’, The Music Box, vol. 7 no. 8 (Christmas 1976), p.302 & vol. 11 no. 2 (Summer 1983) pp.80-3; Turner (2002); E01479.