The Organ

Bellshill Central Parish Church is blessed with having a fine two manual and pedal pipe organ in the sanctuary. 

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The organ is designed and built by the Hilsdon Organ Company, and installed in December 1930 with the Dedication Service and Recital on Sunday 28th December of that year, followed by an evening recital on Monday 29th December. The organist who performed at the opening services was Mr T.C.L. Pritchard (M.A., Mus. Bac, F.R.C.O) of Belhaven Church, Glasgow. Pritchard was a prominent organist at the time and performed regularly at the Glasgow Kelvingrove Organ. (As an aside, the organ he presided over at Belhaven Church was said to be particularly fine and “built at a cost of over £1,100 by Messrs. T. C. Lewis and Co., of London” — half as much again as the cost of the whole church)

It is our intention to begin an annual anniversary organ recital each year on the 29th of december in commemoration of its dedication – stay tuned for more details.

The organ is situated in a purposed built and designed chamber on the Liturgical East Wall of the Church. It comprises 902 pipes and 17 stops contained in 3 divisions. The Great is located on the right hand side of the chamber, The Swell (in it’s box) occupies the left hand side of the chamber. The Pedal division is spread across the rear of the chamber with some of the longest pipes as tall as the case itself.

1930 Brochure from Dedication and Opening Recitals

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The great & pedal organ divisions were cleaned in 2015 by Michael Macdonald & Son Organ Builders. The action is now Electro-pneumatic and a two level solid state memory capture is installed.  In 2015 a MIDI system was added allowing our organist to record items for live playback.

In 2017 the swell organ was fully cleaned and splits in the soundboards rectified by Paul Miller Organ builder of Bonnybridge, Stirling.  The organ is in his care for maintenance and tuning.

Visiting organists are welcome to try this fine organ. Please contact the organist Alan Mathew using the contact page on the main menu.

Organ Specification

Swell Division	Great Division
Oboe 8′ Horn 8′ Gemshorn 4 V’dorchestre 8 V’celeste 8 Stopped Flute 8 Violin Diapason 8	Principal 4 Harmonic Flute 4 Dulciana 8 Clarabella 8 Small open diapason 8 Large open diapason 8 Bourdon 16
Pedal Division	Couplers
Bass Flute 8 Bourdon16 Open Wood 16 (originally labelled Open Diapason, renamed by Macdonald in 2015)	Swell to great Swell to pedal Great to pedal Swell Octave Swell Sub-octave Swell Octave to great Swell Sub-octave to great Tremulant (swell)
Accessories
Three divisional combination pistons Transposer +/- 5 (new 2015) 2 level capture Memory (new 2015) MIDI input/output (new 2015)	(Thumb and toe studs, swell and great/pedal)