Pipe Organ 1914-18 Bridge Street Wesleyan Methodist

Bridge Street Wesleyan Church, later Blyth Central Methodist Church, (demolished)

Unknown

1914-18

Unveiled 4th May 1924 by Major. Gen. Dudgeon of the 50th Northumbrian Division.

Estimated at £1,400, to be raised by direct giving as thank offering.
A different report says £1,000 was required.
Another report states that “The organ, tablet and renovation have cost, roughly, £2000, and of this amount, a debit of £350 remains”.

Public subscription.

Installed “as a memorial to the young men of the congregation who laid down their lives in the war.”

Pipe organ.

There was a tablet above the console.

1. “At some time, probably after the 1939-45 war, when the organ was past its useful life, it was removed and replaced by a mobile organ of a different type and the gap left by the discarded organ was filled by choir stalls. The old organ had gone long before the church itself was demolished in 1989. There was a commemorative plate above the organ, but it was later fixed to the church wall in a different location. It was replaced by a panel on the font in the new church” (Jack Tait)

2. A report in Morpeth Herald also reports the hope of raising money to cover renovation of the church.

Alnwick & County Gazette
08/10/1921 reports proposal to buy a new organ.

Blyth News
06/04/1922 gives report of installation.

Morpeth Herald
15/12/1922 reports on fund raising;
09/05/1924 reports unveiling.

Northern Echo
14/12/1922 reports opening of bazaar to raise money towards the £12,000 (is this a typographical error?)

Shields Daily News
04/10/1921 reports suggestion of a new organ;
05/05/1924 reports briefly on unveiling.

Ralph W. Gould;
Jack Tait (Blyth LHS);
Janet Brown;
Dorothy Hall

If you are researching this memorial please contact 2014@newmp.org.uk