‘Thou shalt buzz no more’: an examination of the organ-building industry in nineteenth-century York; its origins, growth and prominence

The present thesis is a contribution to the history of organ-building in England, focussing upon the careers of sixteen craftsmen from York. With York Minster and twenty-three medieval parish churches within or near its historic walls, the city of York provided a flourishing market for organ-builders during the nineteenth century.
Evidence from York is used to examine how various organ-building ideologies introduced during the nineteenth century were disseminated across England. The influence of Insular Movement, German System, Hill-Gauntlett Revolution and Hope-Jones System practices upon provincial organ-building are discussed chronologically through the work of John Ward, Andreas Eberhard Ohman, John Parkin, John Brown, John Hunton, Bartholomew Pexton, Robert Postill, Richard William Chapman, Henry Whitehead, Joseph Bell, Forster & Andrews, Pilcher Jones, T. Hopkins & Son, W. Denman & Son, Charles Christian Duffill and Samuel Maskell.