Blair Batty
Simcoe, St James United Church

St James United Organ, Simcoe Past History

The organ at St. James Church is one of the largest, and certainly one of the finest organs in the Simcoe area. It was built in 1920 by the organbuilder Casavant Freres, of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. It was designed by the organist of the time, Mr. P.G. Marshall and cost $55,000. The organ originally had 42 stops, 2661 pipes and included a set of the celebrated Deagan chimes.

In the 1930's the console was returned to the factory to be rebuilt, changing it from the original French terraced design, to the English stopjamb design. Through the 1960's much of the organ action was releathered. The organ had a full, romantic sound, which was popular in the 1920's. To provide a clearer texture for the playing of Bach, the larger Open Diapason of the Great was replaced by a Mixture from York Minster Park Church, Toronto. Other 8' Diapasons were moved from division to division or shifted up an octave, making the tone of the organ lighter.

At the request of the organist Angus Macleod, in 1968, a Nazard stop was added in place of the Swell Vox Humana. The 2-2/3' Nazard is an important stop for French organ music. In 1981 the two manual Trumpet ranks and the Pedal 16' Trombone were returned to the Casavant factory for new tongues and revoicing. There was also some re-regulation of the pipework to brighten the sound and repairs were made to the console.

Simcoe, St James United Churc

Console Rebuild 1993

After more than seventy years of use, the 1920 console mechanism was worn out and the console leather had perished. The coupler system and combination action were obsolete and unreliable. The console lacked many of the controls and features that enable an organist to get the most out of the organ.

The console's casework was well built, attractive and suitable to the church architecture. It had a comfortable layout and keyboards that were a delight to play. So it was decided to keep the oak shell keyboards, bench and pedal-board, but replace all the mechanism. Photo shows Angus Macleod the church organist and choirmaster and John VanMaanen: Basso Mirabilis, standing by the console.

The Rebuilt Console

The Simcoe organbuilder, Blair Batty, moved the console to his workshop for rebuilding. The intent was to retain the fine old Casavant "look and Feel", while replacing the failing mechanism. A computerized system was installed to control the stops, stop action, pistons, key switching and coupling. All wiring in the console and between the console and the organ was replaced. New tilting tablets for the couplers, new drawstop actions and new piston buttons were installed. A second computer controls the pipes.

The console casework was cleaned, repaired and polished. The keyboards and pedalboard were cleaned and regulated for travel, key weight and firing point. The toe studs and swell pedals were rechromed and refurbished, and LED readouts were installed for memory level, transposer position, midi programming and Crescendo position.

Six Swell, six Great, six Choir, six Pedal and six General thumb pistons were provided, along with the usual reversible thumb pistons, Set, Cancel, full organ thumb pistons. Six General, plus Full organ, and the Gt/Ped reversible toe pistons were also included. At the time of installation, the combination action had 25 memory levels, but has now been upgraded to 50 levels

One of the interesting changes was the addition of six MIDI stops which control a Roland "Sound Canvas" synthesizer and 300 watt sound system. By selecting a MIDI stop, the organist has the choice of several hundred new electronic voices, such as Harpsichord, Timpani or solo Trumpet. Each MIDI stop can be preprogrammed with its channel, voice or other information.

Other Repairs and Improvements

A Tierce 1 3/5' stop was added to the Swell, to complete the Cornet combination that was anticipated with the Nazard of 1968. The Swell Aeoline was moved to the the Choir and revoiced as an Unda Maris, to make a gentle undulating effect with the Choir Dulciana.

While the organ was apart, organist Angus Macleod and assistant John VanMaanen donated many hours of their time, washing the pipes. The organ now has 2553 pipes.

Participants in the 1993 Organ Project:

Simcoe, St James United Church

Recent Work History

By the early 2000s, the organ was experiancing dead notes caused by leaking leather valves. Leather, being organic and perishable must be replaced about every 40 years. Blair Batty replaced about 2,500 leathers, one per pipe. He was assisted by church volunteers, who did all the hard work of scraping off the old leather. Photo shows white leather valves. About this time the Swell and Choir bellows were releathered.

Then in 2023, the main bellows for the Great and Pedal of the organ failed, all the leather gussets had rotted and finally blew out. Because the bellows was too large to remove, we had to replace the leather in situ. That work was done by Oxford Organ Co, who replaced the retired Blair Batty, but Blair assisted with the job. Blair also releathered the stoppers of the Swell wooden 16' and 8' pipes.

Beautiful New Pipework

In 2024, Central Presbyterian Church of Brantford closed, and with the kind assistance of their organist, Ronald Beckett, the church donated eight stops of their beautiful, nearly-new pipework to the St James organ. So far, 2 wooden stopped flute stops, 8' & 4', were added to the Choir, and a new IV Mixture has been added to the Great.

Volunteer Participants in the "New Pipes" Project:

Simcoe, St James United Churc

The Organ Specification, 2025

GREAT ORGAN

SWELL ORGAN

CHOIR

PEDAL

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