The St. Anne Organ, Mosley

[CHRIS 037]

Martin,

I've been searching the net for photos of the interior of the St. Anne's church, but I can't find much. Just exterior photos, and the organ photo that you included with HW1, the close-up of the console. There are some wonderful stained glass window photos, too.

I'm wondering just how large the interior is, and where the organ is situated. Evidently it was originally a tracker back in 1906 or so, and since converted, and the console is built right into the pipe casework, probably at the rear of the church, on a balcony?

I'm getting fine sound with HW2 and an external reverb with a room size of about 20-30 meters (what ever that really means) and a reverb time of at least 1-2 seconds (or longer sounds good too). I would like to try to match the actual dimensions of the room and decay time and see what that's like.

If you're not too busy (my questions here are certainly not high priority) could you point me in the right direction for more details about the church?

Thanks for all you've done,

Leo Chris.

[pwhodges]

http://www.st-annes-moseley.org.uk/organ.html tells you that the action was originally pneumatic and later electro-pneumatic, and the organ is in a restricted chamber off the chancel...

Paul

[mdyde]

Hello Leo,

Very sorry - I don't think I'm going to have time to answer these questions properly for you, since it would involve quite a lot of digging to find additional photos, or take measurements / make sketches, etc.

However, if you look at the interior and exterior photos included with the sample set, plus those on the St. Anne's website, I think it should be possible to come up with fairly close estimates of the floor plan and dimensions.

The organ and altar are at the opposite end of the building to the tower, and the organ is on the opposite side of the church to the tower.

Hope that helps to some degree.

Best regards,
Martin.

[Gamba]

... I've been searching the net for photos of the interior of the St. Anne's church, but I can't find much. ...

Best regards, Matthias

[CHRIS 037]

Thank you, Matthias,

A beautiful photo. I suppose all the ranks of pipes are behind the pipe facade that shows. I wonder just how loud the organ really sounds in that space.

I have grown to really like these medium/small English church organs.

Leo Chris.

[mdyde]

I suppose all the ranks of pipes are behind the pipe facade that shows. I wonder just how loud the organ really sounds in that space.

Yes - all of the pipework is in the alcove behind the pipe facade. The swell division is at the back and is rather quiet - I took the liberty of turning it up a bit in the virtual model.

Best regards,
Martin.

[jwdg]

... I realise this is a rather late response to this thread!

To get an overall idea of the size of the church, here's an interior photo (Harvest Festival 2007 in case you're wondering what's in front of the altar!):



You can just see the front rank of organ pipes on the right in the chancel. The photo was taken right from the back of the nave, so what you see is basically the whole length of the church. The porch (with tower above) is to your left. (Incidentally, you can sometimes see the church tower in the background of cricket from Edgbaston.) There is a small baptistery behind the camera position.

I'm happy to try to fill in any further details/pictures of the church or organ should anyone be interested, and it is probably possible to arrange for people to play the organ if they'd like to. It's wonderful to discover that an organ that you're familiar with is known to hundreds of people across the world. Thanks to Martin for the hard work that made that happen!

John Gray
Churchwarden
St Anne's Moseley