The Rochford Compton

THE ORGAN
The Kingsway/Rochford organ, serial No. A337, was built by the John Compton Organ Company in 1936 and installed in the Kingsway cinema Hadleigh for the opening on April 27th.
In 1970 the Cinema was sold for redevelopment and the organ was removed. It was reinstalled in the recreation hall of Rochford Hospital where it remained for 24 years. The organ had only limited use.
In 1996 David Stanley and Gerald Usher removed the organ (just in time) as the hospital hall was being demolished!
A new home was generously provided by local Farmer and Lord of the Manor Charles Tabor at Sutton Hall Farm. This new home was the Red Brick Barn, a listed building and Charles Tabor had extensive work done to accommodate the organ.
Since then the organ has been refurbished and is now as good as new.
Regular concerts are held and there is an active team who have an ongoing programme of maintenance and enhancements planned.

ORIGINS
Cinema Organs were originally invented to replace orchestras that were used to accompany silent films in the 1920s'.

They were equipped not only with organ pipes to provide the music but with a range of sound effects such as a set of drums, cymbals, bird whistles, fire bell, car horn etc.

They also have a glockenspiel, a xylophone and some had a vibraphone. These are not electronically reproduced sounds, they are all real instruments operated from the console.

The Kingsway/Rochford organ also has a Melotone, an early electro-mechanical device that can reproduce many musical tone colours that can be used to augment the organ. This unit has a horn loudspeaker nine feet long!

Work and improvements...

Full Specification...