ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH
GRIMSTON, LEICESTERSHIRE
FEATURES OF INTEREST
THE OLD CLOCK
The old clock is thought to date from 1600 or just before and is therefore late Elizabethan. It originally had no dial being connected to one of the bells which struck the hours. A single-handed dial was added in about 1840. The clock stood in the tower and as an early provincial example of an anchor escapement was one of the oldest working clocks of its kind in the County.
In 1981 it was taken down and overhauled by the Revd. AR Haywood who found woodworm had badly damaged the framework and although the woodworm has been eliminated the frame is now too weak to carry the clock with its weights and mechanism. Rather than replace the frame which would have entailed losing the evidence of the placement of the old verge mechanism, the clock was moved to its present position on the north wall of the nave, and no longer runs.
TO PRINT YOUR OWN 3D MODEL OF THE CLOCK
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FEATURES OF INTEREST
THE ORGAN
The organ is a single manual tracker instrument with a 20 note parallel pedal board. There are 6 stops, 2 combination pedals and a swell box. Tuning is to A=440, equal temperament. The organ is regularly used for services in addition to weddings, baptisms and funerals. Although limited in size, the instrument is well-suited to its role in leading hymn singing and providing voluntaries and other appropriate music. It has for instance been used to accompany solo instrumentalists at recitals.
The Organ was built in 1871 by Thomas Lane of Stony Stanton, Leicestershire. This instrument would have been one of the last produced by this local organ builder, for Thomas died later that year. However it is not certain that the organ was installed at Grimston in that year, as an article in the Grantham Journal on 13th October 1877 refers to ‘Miss A. Webster presiding at the harmonium’. Again in 1899 in the Grantham Journal there is reference to ‘Mr. H.L. Camidge, who officiated at the harmonium’. These dates are consistent with notes in the churchwardens minutes and accounts, which refer to the tuning of the harmonium up to 1900 but from March 1912 regularly record expenditure on ‘blowing the organ’ (i.e. paying someone to pump the bellows). Furthermore, the Leicester Daily Post of 26th January 1909, recording details of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archeological Society’s 54th annual meeting, noted that a new organ had been installed at Grimston.
The instrument was completely refurbished in 2012 by Peter Collins, internationally renowned organ builder of Melton Mowbray. During the restoration the pipes were repainted in their original colours, so the organ looks now much as it did when installed. Note that the colours of the pipes reflect those of the floor tiles. We know the original colours and pattern, for although the fronts of the pipes had been over painted in silver, their backs had not.
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