barrel organ directory

Barrel Organs in English Parish Churches

Directory of references to barrel organs listed by historic county

In 1879 the educationalist John Spencer Curwen wrote that some 30 years earlier ‘there would have been found in the Church of England, all the country over, a considerable majority of barrel-organs over those played by the hands and feet’, yet this episode in church music- making is now all but forgotten. In an attempt to preserve the little remaining evidence, this Directory lists all known references to barrel organs formerly used in English parish churches, listed by historic county. Where known, the name of the organ builder is given immediately after the name of the parish. The Bibliography gives further details of the main references.

Bedfordshire Berkshire Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire Cheshire Cornwall Cumberland & Westmorland Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire Kent Lancashire

Leicestershire & Rutland Lincolnshire Middlesex & London Norfolk Northamptonshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Shropshire Somerset Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Sussex Warwickshire Wiltshire Worcestershire Yorkshire

Beeston St Lawrence (Norfolk)

Photo: M. Kilbey

Barrel Organs in English Parish Churches

Directory of references to barrel organs listed by historic county

In 1879 the educationalist John Spencer Curwen wrote that some 30 years earlier ‘there would have been found in the Church of England, all the country over, a considerable majority of barrel-organs over those played by the hands and feet’, yet this episode in church music-making is now all but forgotten. In an attempt to preserve the little remaining evidence, this Directory lists all known references to barrel organs formerly used in English parish churches, listed by historic county. Where known, the name of the organ builder is given immediately after the name of the parish. The Bibliography gives further details of the main references.