Henry Willis & Sons

Reading Town Hall Organ, built by Willis in 1864, extended in 1882 and rebuilt by Harrison & Harrison in 1999
St Bees Priory organ, the last major instrument to be personally supervised by "Father" Henry Willis, 1899

Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845 in London at 2 & 1/2 Foundling Terrace, Gray's Inn Road. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family continued the tradition of organ building until 1997. The company is now based in Liverpool under the ownership of David Wyld who is Managing Director.

History

The founder of the company, the eponymous Henry Willis, was nicknamed "Father Willis" because of his contribution to the art and science of organ building and to distinguish him from his younger relatives working in the firm.

He was a friend of Samuel Sebastian Wesley whom he met at Cheltenham, and who was instrumental in gaining for Willis the contract for his first cathedral organ, at Gloucester, in 1847.

Willis's are regarded as the leading organ builders of the Victorian era, itself a time when both civic and religious commitment led to the erection of a large number of impressive buildings and other public works. During the Industrial Revolution many towns equipped themselves with imposing town halls, preferably with a Willis organ, and a substantial (and similarly equipped) church. Industrialists competed to endow the most lavish halls and instruments. The result was a convergence of both a very fine and technically proficient organ builder, and a substantial number of commissions for really exceptional instruments. This heritage continued into the 1990s.

Notable Willis organs

Famous "Father" Willis organs include those installed at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Lincoln Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Truro Cathedral and Glasgow Metropolitan Cathedral but there are many more including those at the cathedrals in Aberdeen, Calcutta, Canterbury, Durham, Edinburgh, Hereford as well as at St Mary's Church, Southampton, Giggleswick School, Felsted School and the Old High Church in Inverness. St Michael and all Angels, Croydon boasts a "Father" Willis built and installed in 1882 with additions by Noel Mander in 1955.[1] The 1887 Father Willis pipe organ at Beckwithshaw Church is still in use.[2]

The Grand Organ built by Henry Willis & Sons in 1871 for the Royal Albert Hall had four manuals (keyboards) and 111 stops and was, at that time, the largest in the world.

The Grand Organ built by Henry Willis & Sons between 1923 and 1926 at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool, is the largest pipe organ in the UK with two five-manual consoles, 10,268 pipes and a trompette militaire.[3]

Windsor Castle had a Willis until it was destroyed by a fire in November 1992, as have Blenheim Palace and the Royal Academy of Music and several historic civic buildings including Reading Town Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, Freemasons' Hall, London and the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.

The tiny hamlet of St Michael's, near Tenbury Wells also has a full organ which was installed in the new church created to support the then new St Michael's College in the mid-19th century. The 4,600 pipes organ built in 1892 was originally installed in the Brisbane Exhibition Building but in 1927 was moved to the Brisbane City Hall in Brisbane.[4] The organ in St Bees Priory Church (1899) was the last major instrument to be personally supervised by "Father" Henry Willis.

Father Willis's organ won a gold medal in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. The organ was later installed in Winchester Cathedral by the family firm, after being reduced to the appropriate size for the cathedral. Another example of a fine Willis pipe organ can be found in the firm's hometown of Liverpool at St George's Hall.

The "Josiah Wedgwood" Willis organ has been installed in St Peter's Church on Hayling Island.

Although four generations of Henry Willises are mostly remembered for organs on the grand scale they also built smaller instruments. Seven examples exist in Australia, including the last imported, the 1881 organ (Great: 5 stops; Swell: 4 stops; Pedal: 1 stop; 3 couplers) in All Saints Church, Bodalla, New South Wales, commemorating the 'father of Australian dairying', Thomas Sutcliffe Mort.[5]

Henry Willis III built and worked on many organs across Britain, the most notable examples of his work being in Westminster Cathedral and Sheffield City Hall, both built in 1932. These organs both contain stops invented by the builder: the Sylvestrina at 8 foot pitch on the Choir divisions.

Henry Willis IV built many Junior Development Plan Organs which he designed to be economical initially but with scope for expansion as funds became available. There is an example in St Anne's Church in East Wittering, West Sussex.

References

  1. ↑ "Welcome to the Parish Church of Saint Michael and All Angels with Saint James, Croydon". Stmichaelscroydon.org. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  2. ↑ York Herald, 24 December 1887: Organ opening at Beckwithshaw, Harrogate
  3. ↑ http://www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk/about/the-organ.aspx
  4. ↑ Staff Writer. "Organ recital marks 80 years at City Hall". www. northside-chronicle.whereilive.com.au. Retrieved 2009-11-13.
  5. ↑ "History of All Saints Church, Bodalla: The Willis Organ"; church pamphlet; copy held.

External links

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