If anywhere can be described as ‘in the middle of nowhere’, it’s St Peters, Llancillo. It’s deep in the border between Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, surrounded by fields and the mound of a motte and bailey castle. So, it’s odd to find a bit of New York State there...
#thread
#thread
Inside is a small pump organ, gold Gothic script on the console spells out ‘Waterloo'.
The Waterloo Organ Manufacturing Co. was originally established in Waterloo, New York in 1861. The company built a small but successful line of parlour organs, chapel organs and melodeons.
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The Waterloo Organ Manufacturing Co. was originally established in Waterloo, New York in 1861. The company built a small but successful line of parlour organs, chapel organs and melodeons.
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The factory was destroyed by a fire in about 1880, and the company was then purchased by Malcolm Love and Alexander C. Reed in 1881. Love and Reed incorporated the firm as 'The Waterloo Organ Company' in 1888.
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Around this time, parlour organs were waining in popularity, so the company hired master piano builder Seebald Mennig to design and build a line of upright pianos for their product range, with the brand names 'Malcolm Love' and 'Alexander'.
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The company was purchased again in 1903 and renamed the Vough Piano Company after President William C. Vough. It significantly reduced its organ production. Further acquisitions followed, and by the 1920s the firm ceased organ sales altogether.
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We don’t know how a NY organ ended up in this Herefordshire church, but there was a demand for American organs in the late 1800s, as they were advertised across the UK by piano dealers such as Hereford's Mssrs. Heins & Co.
📸: Ross Gazette, 20 March 1879, © @BNArchive)
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📸: Ross Gazette, 20 March 1879, © @BNArchive)
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