Prof.Chip Ross: Inside The Organ at High Street

Inside The Organ at High Street: Pedal Pipes

The organ's pedalboard is a keyboard which the organist plays using his/her feet. The diagram on the right shows the pedalboard of the organ console at High Street. I moved the bench out of the way; the blue lines show about where the bench goes.

The pedal division on the High Street organ has two stops: a 16' Bourdon and an 8' Flute. Both share one set of pipes; the 8' Flute can be considered an extension of the 16' stop. These pipes produce the lowest pitches and are the biggest pipes; the tallest has a speaking length of about 8 feet and is maybe a foot square. The schematic below shows the pedal pipes are squeezed in between the church walls and the left and right sides of the swell box (see the following pictures).

The left hand picture shows me standing in the swell box access door, for a sense of scale. To my left are half of the pedal pipes; the others are on the other side of the swell box.

The right hand picture shows how the pedal pipes look from the swell box door. The left-most pipe is the second biggest pipe in the organ, and the biggest is in the opposite corner.

In the bottom of both pictures you can see the massive springs and some of the "plumbing" of the organ's wind supply.

Some of the pipes looked curved but this is an illusion created by the extreme wide angle lens I was using to take the pictures.

On the right is a close-up view of mouth pieces of the pedal pipes.

When the organ first arrived at High Street, its casework had not yet been built. The organ was set up "as is", and this meant the pipes of the pedal stuck out towards the congregation. The swell box was clearly visible, and the pipes that would eventually get a shiny new coat of paint before taking their places in the front of the new case still had a very industrial look. You can see the empty spaces to the right and left of the swell box where the pedal pipes would eventually be relocated.

The new case looks very nice; perfect for our sanctuary.

Return to Chip's Home Page
Return to High Street Organ Main Page