Church
A peal of ten bells was installed in St Paul's Church in 2005.
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Guided Tours of this beautiful Georgian church can be booked in advance through the church office (0121 236 7858). Tours have the services of a church guide who will give an insight into the history of the church and the main features of the building. Light refreshments (tea/coffee and homemade cake) can be booked at a cost of £2.50 per person, or a buffet lunch can be booked at a cost of £5.00 per person.
Interior of St Paul's Church looking east
The East Window depicting the conversion of St Paul
Plan of St Paul's Church
The Organ
The first documented organ in St Paul’s was built sometime around 1830 by James Bishop. It was sited on the gallery at the west end of the church. Banfield enlarged the organ in 1838 including a new Swell division which was probably a replacement for Bishop’s Swell rather than an addition. Bevington and Sons rebuilt and enlarged the organ in 1871 and again worked on it in 1897.
The organ was moved to its present location in 1927 by Conacher Sheffield & Co. and was extensively rebuilt. Unfortunately the organ case could not be accommodated in its new position unaltered. The wings had to be removed and are now joined together to serve as the screen facing the north gallery, along with some recycled pew doors. The side towers could not fit between the mouldings on the north arcade bases, so the entire case-front was raised so that the corbels of the side towers cleared the mouldings. This caused the side-tower cornices to conflict with the arcade capitals, so the cornices were removed.
Following war damage and the resulting weather-related damage, the organ was noted to be in a poor state by 1953, notably the Choir division was completely ‘bombed out’. Hill, Norman & Beard remodelled the organ as a two manual and pedal instrument in 1964. This is the organ present today albeit with some incongruous additions to the piston system added in 1996. There are a mixture of mechanical and electro-pneumatic actions and soundboards of differing compasses. The pipework consists of some of the original Bishop ranks, arguably the best sounds in the organ at present, some second hand pipework from Hill Norman & Beard’s stock in 1964 and one new stop – the Great Stopped Diapason. It is a credit to the pipe voicer of 1964 that the organ sounds so fine and complete!
During the next few years the organ is going to require much drastic and very expensive work. Although currently it sounds fine, the poorly conceived mechanics are now in a bad state of repair and have proved unreliable at times recently. The soundboards are now in a very poor condition and some of the pipework is showing signs of collapse. Unfortunately only some of the pipework, mainly the original Bishop ranks, will be worth restoring either economically or artistically. We intend to replace the current instrument with a new one, incorporating the existing historic pipework.
The East Window depicting the conversion of St Paul
Plan of St Paul's Church
The Organ
The first documented organ in St Paul’s was built sometime around 1830 by James Bishop. It was sited on the gallery at the west end of the church. Banfield enlarged the organ in 1838 including a new Swell division which was probably a replacement for Bishop’s Swell rather than an addition. Bevington and Sons rebuilt and enlarged the organ in 1871 and again worked on it in 1897.
The organ was moved to its present location in 1927 by Conacher Sheffield & Co. and was extensively rebuilt. Unfortunately the organ case could not be accommodated in its new position unaltered. The wings had to be removed and are now joined together to serve as the screen facing the north gallery, along with some recycled pew doors. The side towers could not fit between the mouldings on the north arcade bases, so the entire case-front was raised so that the corbels of the side towers cleared the mouldings. This caused the side-tower cornices to conflict with the arcade capitals, so the cornices were removed.
Following war damage and the resulting weather-related damage, the organ was noted to be in a poor state by 1953, notably the Choir division was completely ‘bombed out’. Hill, Norman & Beard remodelled the organ as a two manual and pedal instrument in 1964. This is the organ present today albeit with some incongruous additions to the piston system added in 1996. There are a mixture of mechanical and electro-pneumatic actions and soundboards of differing compasses. The pipework consists of some of the original Bishop ranks, arguably the best sounds in the organ at present, some second hand pipework from Hill Norman & Beard’s stock in 1964 and one new stop – the Great Stopped Diapason. It is a credit to the pipe voicer of 1964 that the organ sounds so fine and complete!
During the next few years the organ is going to require much drastic and very expensive work. Although currently it sounds fine, the poorly conceived mechanics are now in a bad state of repair and have proved unreliable at times recently. The soundboards are now in a very poor condition and some of the pipework is showing signs of collapse. Unfortunately only some of the pipework, mainly the original Bishop ranks, will be worth restoring either economically or artistically. We intend to replace the current instrument with a new one, incorporating the existing historic pipework.