Baptist
Church
Parkside
J.E.
Dodd 1913, 2 manuals, 14 speaking stops, mechanical action
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Notes by
Rev Bruce Naylor "Celebrating 150 years since the birth
of J E Dodd" (Aug. 2006):
Seventeen years have passed since Dodd built his first organ
for St Bartholomew's Church, Norwood. The first organ was traditional,
this instrument reflects Dodd's orchestral concept of an organ.
Higher wind pressure, and pipe scales, no real attempt at a chorus
with stops selected for their orchestral colour and solo effects.
Builder: J.E. Dodd 1913. In memory of J.W.
Coudrey
Memorial plaque
Cost £200. [1]
From the 2009
OHTA Conference Book, David Shield writes:
Mr
and Mrs Coudrey had much to do with the foundation of the Baptist
cause in Parkside Joseph
Coudrey had been owner of a pig-iron foundry in Staffordshire
but, with a slump in the industry migrated to Adelaide in 1879
bringing his wife, family and in-laws with him1
Supposedly stemming from a conversation between Mrs Coudrey
and a Mr John Foreman late in 1879, a circular dated 26 March
1880 called a meeting in the vestry of Flinders Street Baptist
Church for the establishment of a Baptist interest in the rapidly
growing suburb of Parkside.
During 1879, 100 new dwellings had been erected in Eastwood
and Parkside.2
The
first meeting was held on 30 March 1880 and a committee formed.
Decisions were taken to buy land and invite the Revd S.
Fairey to be first pastor.
C.H. Goode immediately acquired an option on the land
on which the church now stands.
By 22 April the first plans for a building had been drawn
by Mr James Cumming, architect, of Currie St, tenders were then
called and a contract let on 3 June to Mr Thomas Gidley with
Mr A. McMillan as clerk of works.
Services were first conducted in the Coudrey's
home Young Street
on the first Sunday in August 1880.
By September, the vestry was complete, and services were
held there until the church was opened for worship on 5 December
1880, nine months and five days from the time of the meeting
of the first committee.3
Cumming designed
the building to accommodate 400 people.
In Gothic style, it was constructed using freestone, relieved
with bands and voussoirs (wedge shaped stones) of white and red
bricks, and the weatherings and copings of cemented work.
The nave was 63ft x 37ft and 27ft (19.2m x 11.3m x 8.2m)
high at the platform, containing a baptistery at one end.
Ventilation (essential for the South Australian climate)
was provided by the windows, and flowers in the ceiling communicating
with dormers in the roof.
A room behind the nave was to be divided into three vestry
rooms.4
In recent years,
along with physical changes to the building, the orientation
of worship has been altered.
With the replacement of pews by chairs the congregation
now faces the Eastern wall. The Sunday School building
of 1883 has been joined to the main building and a new entrance
created by which the congregation enters. The
memorial porch is now used for other purposes.
The
Coudreys
brought a small portable organ with them from England.
This instrument, along with another owned by D.W. Melvin,5
was lent to the church during the first two years prior to the
purchase of a reed organ for £40 in 1883.
With Mr H. Hassell assisting on cello, this was used till
the pipe organ was acquired in 1913.6
Whether the borrowed instruments were pipe organs is not
clear though it is more likely they were reed organs.
It
is interesting to note that an organ said to have been built
by Coudrey in 1894, is currently in the Echunga Uniting Church7 For the opening services
of the church Mr E Thorpe lent his organ.
Joseph
Coudrey
became the first secretary and was the first organist.
He campaigned for many years to obtain a pipe organ but
died in 1908. The organ
built by J.E. Dodd was opened with a concert on 22 January 1913
and was dedicated to Coudrey's memory
Exactly
when negotiations began for the organ is unclear.
The Church must have entered a provisional agreement for
the construction of an instrument to cost £300.
A more formal agreement was written dated 20 May 1912
including the specifications for a two-manual organ, details
of construction, and a guarantee that it would be erected and
completed and ready for use in the Church on the seventeenth
day of December 1912. However,
the cost was to be £375.
In
the covering letter four days later, Eustace Dodd apologised
for exceeding the church limit, indicated ways of reducing cost,
and tried to get the organ made at the higher price by using
a subtle form of bribery.
In his opinion it was the smallest instrument that could
meet their needs and blamed the type of case design for the additional
cost. To reduce costs he suggested
the prepared stops might not be proceeded with at a saving of
£16, but warned against it.
Removing the super octave on the swell would save £10
and the Dolce on the Pedals a further £12.10.0.
He then suggested that if the Church could not see its
way clear to incorporate the enlarged scheme it might be best
to leave things in abeyance to a more opportune time. Then
comes the twist and Dodd uses the death of Coudrey as a lever
I'm sure the late revered gentleman whose memory you intend
to perpetuate by this organ , would be the first to say that
it be temporarily shelved, rather than it should not worthily
fulfil its true position in your midst, and be a source of increasing
inspiration Dodd
thanks them for the provisional order and if there was any suspicion
of his using it as a lever to force their hands and pay more
than they wished, was prepared to free them of their obligation. As a final point he
indicates that the contract appeals to me especially owing to
the long standing, and greatly esteemed friendship existing between
the late Mr
Coudrey
and my father, and on this score alone, I should like to do my
very utmost to produce a memorial, worthy of this gentleman.8
How could they resist?
Five
months later the issue of the organ's motive power was raised.
Dodd favoured the hydraulic engine wherever possible but
indicated that it was subject to the pressure of the water. As this was low in Parkside
he offered an electric motor and blower at an additional cost
of £80. Savings could be made
if installed at the same time as the organ and he used the organ
at the Wesleyan Church in Norwood as an example for comparison.
The immediate response was for the church to stay with
manual blowing.9
The
guarantee of completion by mid-December was to be unfulfilled.
Although the original agreement had indicated 17 December,
Dodd wrote on the second of that month that he could not promise
completion of the organ before 31 December.
He reiterated his reasons for the delay as the result
of the unsettled condition of the labour market and the impossibility
of getting further effort out of his staff in the way of overtime.10 The organ committee
responded by fixing the date for the opening for 22 January 1913.
As
was his custom, Dodd offered to organise the opening services
for the organ. Without consulting the
church, and before the completion date of the organ had been
determined, he had contacted Wilfred Arlom LRCM ARCM to undertake
the task.11 He rationalised that
he was in a better position to undertake the arrangements for
the recital as I am more advantageously placed in arranging such
matters than the average church, where a Professional Organist
is not permanently retained. But his offer did not
extend to the cost of supplying printing of programmes.12
By
inference it would seem the visibility of the organ blower was
a distraction. In a reply to the organ
committee secretary, Mr O.H. Walter, the reconstruction of the
bellows action, to be operated from behind the organ rather than
the side, was discussed. Dodd was always absolutely
against placing a blower where he practically speaking had a
free hand, and where he is not under the direct eye of some responsible
person. He felt the £10
needed to penetrate the back wall would be better spent completing
the organ. He suggested a screen
be erected instead, and sighted the very select Church of the
Epiphany Crafers as an example where none of the congregation
had taken exception to the blower being seen while operating
the handle.
Dodd's
reasons make interesting reading:
The trouble in
placing a blower away from the direct control of the organist,
and not in touch with some, at least of the members of the Congregation,
is that he frequently takes advantage of his position to leave
the building, during sermon etc., and, when wind is afterwards
required, he is absent from his post. There is a further disadvantage
that he often invites his friends round to join him, and a natural
consequence is that much talk and giggling takes place which
is not generally considered to add to the dignity of the service,
and also only too often, the blowers surroundings are adorned
by drawings, writings, and carvings of a decidedly objectionable
character.13
Acting
on his own initiative Dodd found a buyer for the cabinet organ
used from 1883. He sold it to Mr D.
Fraser of Black Forest for £17.
After deducting £3 for renovating, tuning,
and transporting the organ, he offered the Church a credit note
of £14 and asked for their approval of his actions.14
The
specification as offered in the original agreement follows.
The case was to be made of New Zealand Rimu timber and
stained and polished to a dull walnut finish.
The organ was to be tuned to New Philharmonic Pitch =
522 ½ vibrations at 65o .
The whole of the organ was to be voiced on 3½"
wind pressure.
________________________________________________________________________________________
1 The group
included Kate Hill, sister of Coudrey's wife Emily Louisa, nee
Hill Orphaned early Kate
lived with the Coudreys.
Alice Tibbits, her friend, also emigrated, the pair becoming
authorities in the training of nurses and hospital management.
Gibberd J, Kate Hill, article in Australian Dictionary
of Biography online:
(I
have included this article)
2 Jensen, E. & R.,
Colonial Architecture in South Australia (Adelaide: Rigby, 1980), p.671; note
9/780 - Register,
2 January 1880
3 Parkside Baptist Church
Jubilee Souvenir 1880-1930
4 Observer, 11 December 1880, p.997.4
5 D.W. Melvin was a draper,
sub editor for the Register,
and auctioneer. A staunch supporter
of the Baptist cause he was one of the first to donate to the
Parkside Baptist Building fund (research notes D. Shield)
6 Parkside Baptist Church: Jubilee Souvenir 1880-1930
7 Town & Gown: OHTA Conference booklet 1999, p.38. As Coudrey's
daughter was organist at Parkside Baptist for some years it is
likely the organ remained in the home until 1966 when it was
acquired by Rosewater Methodist Church Dora
died in 1969 aged 83 It may
have been this instrument that formed Coudrey's relationship
with Dodd
see DLB 1910-1912, 24 May 1913
8 Eustace Dodd to The
Organ Committee Baptist Church Parkside; ibid., pp.870-873 (some
duplication in original) on pp.874-877 (p.875 missing)
9 Dodd to Oscar H. Walter,
11 October 1912: DLB 1909-1914
pp.92-94
10 Dodd to Organ Committee,
2 December 1912, DLB 1909-13,
pp.852-853
11 Ibid.; Arlom opened
the organ for the Victoria Square Methodist Church Kadina in
September of 1911 - Kadina and Wallaroo Times, 2 September 1911, p. 2.4
12 Dodd to Oscar H Walter,
13 December 1912: DLB 1909-13,
pp.887-888
13 Ibid. 7 February 1913 in response to a
letter on 5th inst: DLB 1909-13, p.909
14 Ibid. 30 September 1913: DLB
1913-16, p.12
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