William Hill & Son



William Hill & Son was one of the main organ builders in England during the 19th century.

The founder
William Hill was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire in 1789. He married Mary, the daughter of organ-builder Thomas Elliot, on 30 October 1818 in St Pancras Parish Church, and worked for Thomas Elliott from 1825. The company was known as Elliott and Hill until Elliott died in 1832.

When William Hill died in 1870 a memorial window was installed in the church at Spilsby, Lincolnshire.

The company
On Elliot's death in 1832, William Hill inherited the firm. In 1837 he formed a partnership with Federick Davison who left in the following year to form a partnership with John Gray, Gray and Davison.

From 1832 William Hill's elder son William joined him in the firm. From 1855 William Hill's younger son Thomas joined the company and took control after his father's death in 1870.

When Thomas died in 1893 the firm continued under his son, Arthur George Hill, until 1916 when it was amalgamated with Norman & Beard into a huge organ-building concern as William Hill & Son & Norman & Beard Ltd. later shortened to Hill, Norman & Beard.

Examples of the firm's work, in order, include:


 * Birmingham Town Hall, 1832
 * King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 1834. Rebuilt by Harrison & Harrison in 1934
 * Westminster Abbey, 1848. Replaced by Harrison & Harrison in 1937 retaining some of Hill’s pipework.
 * Kidderminster Town Hall, Worcestershire, 1855
 * St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney 1866, rebuilt by Hill, Norman & Beard and Orgues Letourneau
 * Trinity Methodist Church in Burton-upon-Trent, 1869. After the closing of the church in 2011, the organ was transferred to the Catholic St. Afra church in Berlin, and inaugurated on 22 November 2015. It is regarded as the most significant English organ in Germany.
 * St Peter's Church, Streatham, 1870
 * St John's Church, Torquay, 1872
 * Melbourne Town Hall, opened 1872, destroyed by fire 1925
 * Sydney Town Hall Grand Organ, 1886–89, opened 1890, the largest organ in the world at the time of its construction, with a case designed by A. G. Hill
 * St Peter's Church, Mundham, 1877
 * Adelaide Town Hall, 1877, reconstructed and installed at the Barossa Regional Gallery, Tanunda, South Australia, reopened 2014
 * Corpus Christi College Oxford in the chapel, 1880
 * St Mary's Church, Tottenham, 1889. Received Grade 1 listing in 2004 due to it being in its original state with Barker lever Action intact, manual air pump working and many stops, given its relatively small size.
 * Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church, Paisley 1890.
 * St Andrew's, Croydon, 1891, and a replacement in 1906
 * St Augustine's Church, Penarth, 1895
 * Christ Church, Llanfairfechan, Wales, 1895/1902
 * Holy Trinity Church, Gosport, 1874-1972. Rebuild of organ purchased from the Duke of Chandos by parishioners in 1747.
 * Selby Abbey, 1909
 * Peterborough Cathedral, 1894, subsequently Hill, Norman & Beard (1930/31), Harrison & Harrison (1980-present). Case designed by A. G. Hill.
 * Christ Church / Crimean Memorial Church, Istanbul, 1911
 * St Alban's Church, Ilford, England
 * St Peter's Church, Mundham, England