In the past month the Project has received several communications relating to William Charlton Blackett (1859-1941), the most important organ builder ever to work in Hong Kong.
The first item, courtesy of our friend and colleague Stuart Wolfendale, is a link to a historical website devoted to Heaton, Newcastle-on-Tyne, where Blackett founded his first organ firm with Charles William Howden around 1890 (Blackett and Howden). A section on Blackett and Howden can be found here, including information about Blackett’s risky 1917 trip from London to Hong Kong onboard the S.S. Fushimi Maru: https://heatonhistorygroup.org/tag/heaton-methodist-church/?fbclid=IwAR3qGWldMYd4WlQqWeXsAy9ObPXunUaGUd-mjnsG_LCpiAm0ZF1-F8c6–Q
Thanks to the kindness of Mr. Lee Ping Yin, the Project also recently received a short video of the blowing mechanism of HKG1934, at St. Teresa’s Church, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. This is the ‘big wheel’ system referred to by the informant who provided information about the organ at Rosary Church, Kowloon (HKG1933a), and is certainly unique as far as we are concerned.
The Project hopes that HKG1934 will eventually be restored to playing condition.