New Zealand Organ Manufactory Workshop
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Workshop
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The New Zealand Organ Manufactory is named after the Christchurch workshop of New Zealand's leading nineteenth-century organ
builder, Edgar Henry Jenkins (1836-1924). Jenkins trained under William Hill & Sons in London, and Cavaillé-Coll & Cie in Paris, in the
Edgar Henry Jenkins (1836-1924). New Zealand's foremost nineteenth-century organ builder. He operated a workshop in Christchurch in the 1880s which he named the New Zealand Organ Manufactory. Cyclopaedia of New Zealand (1903).
The modern establishment of the Manufactory was greatly assisted early on by the acquisition of tunings and workshop equipment from Thomas Rohlfs of Wellington, formerly with the South Island Organ Company, more recently with Wolff & Associates of Quebec, and now Managing Director of QLF Pipe Organ Components of Virginia. Dr Newton's former workshop was located in Harbour Street, in the heart of Oamaru's famous
Historic Former workshop in Harbour Street, Oamaru. Oamaru Creek. The Manufactory has also opened a new workshop and store in Te Aroha in the former Masonic Lodge, which we are sharing with its new owner, Paul Downie, harpsichord maker and restorer of Ponsonby. The Manufactory is fully equipped in all departments of organ building, including the manufacture of metal pipes. The mobile workshop is likewise equipped to handle a wide range of repairs. Our tuning rounds extend throughout the country, and pipe and reed organs are repaired and overhauled in the workshop and on site. One of our specialties is the restoration of historic instruments to museum standards, such work being undertaken for museums in both Islands. South Island workshop in Meek Street, Oamaru. Organic and natural materials are used wherever possible, many sourced locally,
including ostrich and peacock feathers for cleaning old pipes.
North Island workshop in Rewi Street, Te Aroha. |
1850s and '60s, and following service in the Crimean War was active in Spain. He emigrated to
New Zealand in 1869 and continued organ building through to the 1920s.
Quarter, but was recently moved into the historic Meek's Mill, a secluded and
picturesque corner of central Oamaru immediately behind the town clock in the main street.
Our new home is sunny yet sheltered by the willows overhanging the adjacent Oamaru Creek,
with Takaro park beyond.
There is a mezzanine floor for displaying museum instruments and
items of interest, a four-level tower and an oat-malting
room for storage, timber and supply stores, and a large
workshop area.
