The West Gallery at Belchamp Walter Church
The organ that was in the West Gallery, Belchamp Walter
The West Gallery was the structure at the West end of the Nave that was dismantled in 1867. I first
saw reference to an "orchestra" in Thomas Wright's account of the Church:
Thomas Wright said:
There is an orchestra, with a fine-toned organ. This church, belonging originally to Alberic de Vere, was given by
him to the priory of Earl's Colne, and this house appropriated to itself the great tithes, which, going to the
crown on the general dissolution, left the living (which is a vicarage) very small; but it was augmented by
William Raymond, Esq. and others, in 1727, who gave £100, and
a house valued at £6 per annum, which insured the further augmentation of the living by a donation of £200
from Queen Anne's bounty.
Thomas Wright wrote the text above in 1831/36, before the "orchestra" was dismantled.
The West Gallery at St Mary Ardley, Oxfordshire
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The West Gallery as described in the Church Guide 1965
What Wikpedia say:
about the wooden structures.
The term "west gallery" derives from the wooden galleries which in the 18th century were constructed at
the west end of typical churches, and from which gallery the choir would perform.
Churches were built in a standard layouts, with the nave running from east-west away from the altar,
so that the west gallery or choir, would face the altar, the same way as, but above, the church-goers.
Victorians disapproved of the Georgian galleries, and most were removed during restorations in the 19th century.
What WestGallery Churches say:
During the reign of Queen Victoria many of the interiors of our Parish Churches were transformed from their 'traditional'
pre-nineteenth century appearances into what we see today. As a result, much of what we now treasure as our 'Heritage' was
swept away. In the same way as the music we think of as West Gallery Music, or Rural Georgian Psalmody, continued in the
Independent chapels for a long while after the Oxford Movement introduced Hymns Ancient & Modern in 1861, many Independent
chapels were spared the zeal of the Victorian reformers, and many
glorious examples still exist of the interiors as they were originally built.
The Handel Organ
The Handel Organ was located in St. Mary's Church up until the 1859 renovations.
The Handel Organ
An article from the 1894-1899 Haverhill Echo newspaper archive - March 4th 1899 -
A recent issue of the Organist and Choirmaster contains an interesting account written by Mr Thomas Elliston of Sudbury,
of an old organ that once belonged to Handel, the great composer, and is now in the possession of Mr S.J.St Clere Raymond,
J.P. of the Hall, Belchamp Walter.
When the newspaper article was written, 1899, JMSR was not the owner of the Hall,
Belchamp Walter as it is reported that he died in 1893. It was Samuel John St. Clere Raymond, who only lived 6 years
after JMSR died.
Isabella Raymond was born 17?? and died in 1808 and if the Organ was presented to her
it would have been at a young age as Handel died in 1759. If the organ was dated
as 1700 Handel would have been 15 when it was manufactured. He could have played it, but did he gift it to Isabella?
Handel was music master to the present owners great great aunt, Isabella Raymond,
afterwards Countess of Dundonald, and was a frequent visitor to Belchamp Hall, the tradition states that the instrument
at one time belonged to Handel, and in any case he most certainly used it. In corrobation of this is the fact that
Handel's harpsicord, now in the British Museum, was formerly the property of the grandfather of the predecessors of
Mr Raymond, and was afterwards disposed of to a connection of the family, Mr George Skinner, who presented it to the
authorities 'circa' 1855. The organ is a small one, having a width of 3ft 10ins.and a height of 6ft 2ins and the
depth being only 23ins. The front consists of a movable panel, and a door hung with joints.
The carving, gilding and decoration are still in good state of preservation.
The organ proper is constructed in two sections, the lower portion, containing the single feeder bellows only,
being, in appearance, something like a large sea chest or trunk having massive brass handles to lift by,
so as to be able to carried easily when the upper portion of the organ, which fits in, was lifted off.
There are castors on the bottom of the four corners. A modern key board had been substituted for the original
one some years before its removal from the church, but the original was fortunately preserved.
Mr Elliston gives a long and technical description of the mechanism of the instrument which is of course quite
different from the modern organs. When in the church the organ stood on a platform on which was fixed a long
spring presumably in connection with a roughly constructed composition pedal, but the organ proper has no pedals
of any description. The instrument cannot be used in its present condition, being simply set up in a rough manner.
The owner of the organ writes: My Aunt, now between seventy and eighty years of age, tells me that she is sure
that the organ 'did belong' to Handel,
and that he gave it to my great aunt, Lady Dundonald, who was his favourite pupil.
Handel and the organ of Belchamp Walter Hall
The The British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) says that the organ in Belchamp Hall is not likely to be
the organ that is described on the Belchamp Hall website and in other accounts of the Hall.
At Belchamp Walter Hall in Suffolk is a very late and rather unusual consort organ, probably dating from around 1700.
Legend has it that it was a gift from Handel to his pupil Isabella Raymond. Unfortunately, not so
– but my research has revealed a no less interesting story.
You can read all about it in the next BIOS Reporter (45:4) due in November.
The reference was from consortorgans.info/2021/10/07/handel-and-the-organ-of-belchamp-walter-hall/