Bevington & Sons : Victorian Organ Builders
The life and times of four generations of the Bevington family.
As told by Tony, Jill & Romana Bevington. Preston House Publishing (2013) ISBN 978-0-9576655-0-7
The book can be purchased on Amazon and will cost from £18.20
As told by Tony, Jill & Romana Bevington. Preston House Publishing (2013) ISBN 978-0-9576655-0-7
The book can be purchased on Amazon and will cost from £18.20
Followers of this website will remember the ongoing support given some years ago to the project to rebuild the splendid Bevington Victorian pipe organ given by Holmer Church Hereford to St Mary's Hay-on-Wye across the border in Wales. It is now two years since the installation was completed and many people, local and visiting, have seen the amazing gilded light oak case and, if lucky enough, have heard it played.
I was delighted to receive a copy of the book recently published by several descendants of the Bevington family. Out of over 2,000 instruments built by the Soho firm, the Hay-on-Wye organ has been chosen to grace the cover of this comprehensive history of the family and their business from its inception. Tony, Jill and Romana Bevington are to be admired for the dedication which has resulted in this important publication. They write with love and humour about the early years of the family from the first link with organ building in the late 1700s. They give us all the local Soho colour and a huge amount of information on topics including the insurance of workshops such as theirs in the days before Fire Regulations and Health and Safety legislation. Fire seemed to be everywhere with rare woods, chemicals and hazardous materials regularly rising as smoke into the skies above their Rose Yard venue. There is esoteric information such as that of the production of the distinctive Bevington rolled pipes which we learn included, in their special metal, ground up beer bottles no less. (Don't ask, but if you have to know, get the book.) No corner has been left unturned with endless family wills, death certificates and order books being examined and every baby who died in infancy given a respectful mention making the book at the same time personal as well as scholarly. The book contains a full 3 or 4 pages about the Hay organ and also includes the small Bevington at Llaneigon and the obligatory picture of the iconic standard poodle Curate Jimmy with his companion Father Richard.
I was delighted to receive a copy of the book recently published by several descendants of the Bevington family. Out of over 2,000 instruments built by the Soho firm, the Hay-on-Wye organ has been chosen to grace the cover of this comprehensive history of the family and their business from its inception. Tony, Jill and Romana Bevington are to be admired for the dedication which has resulted in this important publication. They write with love and humour about the early years of the family from the first link with organ building in the late 1700s. They give us all the local Soho colour and a huge amount of information on topics including the insurance of workshops such as theirs in the days before Fire Regulations and Health and Safety legislation. Fire seemed to be everywhere with rare woods, chemicals and hazardous materials regularly rising as smoke into the skies above their Rose Yard venue. There is esoteric information such as that of the production of the distinctive Bevington rolled pipes which we learn included, in their special metal, ground up beer bottles no less. (Don't ask, but if you have to know, get the book.) No corner has been left unturned with endless family wills, death certificates and order books being examined and every baby who died in infancy given a respectful mention making the book at the same time personal as well as scholarly. The book contains a full 3 or 4 pages about the Hay organ and also includes the small Bevington at Llaneigon and the obligatory picture of the iconic standard poodle Curate Jimmy with his companion Father Richard.
Father Richard and Curate Jimmy at the console of the Hay-on-Wye Bevington (Photo: Jack Tait)
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It is good to recall that one of the first people to play the organ after its installation was New Zealand's own Professor Martin Setchell who had first made its acquaintance many years ago when it was still in Holmer church. He honoured us by performing during a timely visit to Europe and choose a wonderful programme of pieces that might well have been played when it was commissioned for the Italianate Music Room of Hagley Hall Cambridgeshire in the late 1800s. Before Martin, only the inaugural recital had been performed by Dr Roy Massey. Martin was followed by Roger Judd who has retired to the Hay area after many years as organist to St George's Chapel, Windsor.
A large section of the book deals with Henry Bevington's spinster daughter Elizabeth who devoted her life to "good works" culminating in the founding of the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic in Queen's Square Soho, now the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London. Recently their archives have been made available and the writers were able to benefit from access to long lost papers which have given much detailed information on the role of the Bevingtons in setting up what is now recognised as an internationally acclaimed centre for research into Neuroscience and Neurosurgery. I do recommend this book to all who are interested in the Victorian pipe organ and its background. Rita Tait Hay-on-Wye, December 2013 |
