Донкастерский Минстер: История и Архитектура Собора Святого Георгия

Minster Church in Doncaster, England

Doncaster Minster, formally the Minster and Parish Church of St George, is the Anglican minster church of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is a grade I listed building and was designed by architect designer George Gilbert Scott. The church was built in 1854–1858 to replace an earlier building destroyed by fire. It is an active place of worship and has a Schulze organ, a ring of eight bells, and a celebrated clock by Dent. The church is one of two parish churches to have minster status in South Yorkshire. The other is the minster church of Rotherham.

The original 12th century Norman building burnt down on the last day of February 1853. This fire resulted in the loss of the medieval library which was above the south porch. The current building was designed by architect Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1853 and constructed between 1854 and 1858 at a cost of £43,126 4s 5d.

The medieval Parish Church of St George possessed a fine Harris organ of 1739–40. This instrument was praised by John Stanley, who declared "every pipe in the reed stops to be worth its weight in silver". It grew from an original specification of some 24 stops to one of 51 stops and was reputed to be the largest organ in England except for York Minster, due to the efforts of Jeremiah Rogers (organist 1835–1879), who paid for much of the work himself. The organ had just been relocated from the west gallery to the chancel and its pedal extended to 32 ft pitch, when it was consumed by fire, along with the entire building, on 28 February 1853. The leading architect of the day, Sir George Gilbert Scott, was commissioned to rebuild the church, a task which he completed in only four years. Consecrated in 1858, the new church is the most cathedral like of Scott's parish churches and is crowned by a bell tower 170 feet high. Jeremiah Rogers was desirous of commissioning an organ worthy of Scott's new church and set out to acquire "the best organ that could be obtained anywhere in the world". Rogers made many visits around Europe inspecting famous organs, often in the company of his friend E. J. Hopkins (organist of the Temple Church).

Johann Friedrich Schulze was born in Milbitz near Paulinzella, Thuringia, in 1794, and began making organs there in 1825. His first organs were for Horba (10 stops) and Milbitz (21 stops). In 1825, he moved to Paulinzella where his business increased and he undertook substantial contracts at Solingen and Bremen Cathedral. In 1851, he exhibited an organ at the Great Exhibition, reputedly at the express invitation of Prince Albert, himself a native of Thuringia. One of three foreign organs on exhibition, Schulze's instrument was a modest two manual of 15 stops. Subsequently, transferred to Northampton Guildhall, it was later destroyed. It presented several features which at the time were new to the country and aroused much interest, resulting in the award of a prize medal. The specification was as follows:

The Doncaster Schulze contained a number of technical innovations. Huge pedal slider soundboards were built to enable each pedal stop to be available at two pitches, thus enabling an independent pedal section of some 25 registers including 2 mixtures, 4 mutations and 8 reeds, well able to support both classical and romantic repertoire. In terms of sheer number of stops, though perhaps not in ranks, it exceeded its rival at St. George's Hall, Liverpool. In addition to the provision of conventional beating reeds, Schulze provided two free reeds: the pedal Contra Posaune 32 ft and Posaune 16 ft. Doncaster possesses the only known example of this stop at 32 ft pitch in England. In order to obtain more definition in his pedal department, Schulze provided the first known example of a wooden 16 ft Violone, fitted with a box mouth to steady the speech. Other innovations included in the instrument were the triangular section Hohl Flute 8 ft on the Great division and the use of wooden harmonic flutes. Stop names and characteristics unfamiliar in this country included the Quintaten, Lieblich Gedackt, Gemshorn, Dolce, Terpodian and of course the famed wide mouthed Schulze diapason. The Flauto Traverso 8 ft and the Flauto Traverso 4 ft, as noted by Hopkins, consist of cylindrical open flute pipes, made from Beech, bored and turned on a lathe. The chief glory of the Doncaster Schulze is its bold Great Flue Chorus which extends from its manual 32 ft to no fewer than 14 ranks of mixture (the Swell having to be content with a mere 12 mixture ranks).

In 1910 the only significant changes were made to the instrument with the replacement of Schulze's "borrowed" solo manual with an independent department in its own swell box. Another new swell box was provided for the echo organ making it in the words of Magnus Black "inaudible above the traffic except in the early hours of the morning". The echo swell box shutters have since been removed! A large leathered No1 Diapason, standing in its own separate chest, was added to the Great at this time. It was removed in 1959. The sum total of the Norman & Beard changes was the addition of 8 new stops (i. e. the Solo division and the Swell Celestes). It is believed that the wind pressure to the Great Reeds was increased, but no other changes were made to the voicing. In 1935 J W Walker & Sons provided a new electro pneumatic action and radiating terraced stop tab console on the south side of the choir (see plate VI). Further work was carried out by Walkers in 1959 including the replacement of the original pedal chests, which after 100 years service were no longer reliable. The Walker console was removed in 1999 when Andrew Carter installed a replacement 5 manual drawstop console built by Nicholson. The blowing plant and Great action were overhauled at this time.

1862 Edmund Schulze & Son, Paulinzella. Tracker and Barker lever action. 1894 Abbott & Smith, Leeds. New console and tubular pneumatic stop action. 1896 Abbott & Smith removed foot blowing gear and installed Shipley gas engine and compressor. 1910 Norman & Beard provided a new Solo organ together with 5 new stops to Solo organ & 2 Swell strings at a cost of £985. Large open diapason added to Great (removed in 1958). 1935 J W Walker & Sons Ltd, London. New stop tab console with electric action. 1958 J W Walker & Sons Ltd, London cleaned the organ and provided new soundboards to the pedal. 1983 Swell and choir organs restored after water damage. 1989 Cleaned after fire in church. 1992 J W Walker & Sons refurbished soundboards of Great Organ reeds and mixtures. 1994 A J Carter refurbished the Great flue soundboards. 1999 Nicholson in collaboration with A J Carter installed new console; octave & sub octave couplers to Swell and Solo, and the Echo to Choir and Echo to Pedal couplers were removed. Blowing plant refurbished. 2000 A J Carter, Wakefield restored Great main action.