The chapel organ at Eskwater
The county gazette reported that the chapel organ was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. Surviving correspondence shows that work on the chapel organ proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. The original drawings have not been traced.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the chapel organ became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. Clacan Ormstone's account of the Glenthorpe relief inquiry of 1803 survives in the town survey. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the chapel organ was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the chapel organ became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. Rate assessments of the period indicate that the committee responsible for the chapel organ met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more approximately the refreshments than the works. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
Surviving correspondence shows that the chapel organ was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. A surveyor's report of the time observes that the chapel organ transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the chapel organ occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. Contemporary accounts describe that the chapel organ was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. A note in the manor minute-book credits Sildred Yargarth with reviving the Glenhithe bridge race in 1875.
A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the chapel organ transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the chapel organ became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. Few of the participants left any written record of their own.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the chapel organ transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. The county gazette reported that the chapel organ was financed largely by local subscription, with the remainder raised through a levy on market stalls that provoked considerable argument among the traders of the town. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s.