Image: Interior of St Michael’s Church, Boldmere showing the organ installed by John Banfield in 1876 (ref B24)
Reproduced with the permission of the Sutton Coldfield Library
In December 1940 a very elderly man died at the home of his daughter, where he had been living in his later years, in Victoria Road, Sutton Coldfield. He was ninety-nine years old and his name was John Banfield.  Though he had spent his working life inside churches, Banfield’s funeral service took place at the crematorium at Perry Barr. His death was noted in local newspapers, but there were no obituaries. There were, of course, other things on the minds of the people of Sutton Coldfield – the country was at war, men were being called up and food was being rationed. Yet John Banfield & Son was once a very well-known, and highly-regarded, business in Birmingham and its environs.
John Banfield & Son constructed and repaired church organs, principally in the Birmingham area but also in other parts of the country. At a time when there were many more churches and chapels than there are today, there was a high demand for organs, which were used to accompany the congregation during the singing of hymns. Organs were intricate musical instruments, and their construction and maintenance was very skilled work. Banfield & Son strove to keep up with constantly-evolving new technology.
Confusingly – but not unusually for the nineteenth century – there were two organ makers called John Banfield. They were father and son. The father first constructed an organ in 1830 for Ebenezer Congregational Church in Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham. With a Sunday morning congregation of 600, the funds could be raised for the purchase of an organ. We know that Banfield built the organ because when, in March 1891, his son was restoring it, he discovered a note left in the bellows by his father recording this fact. Like other organ builders, Banfield’s father was in the habit of leaving notes inside the bellows indicating that he had built or restored an organ.
By the mid-nineteenth century organs had been installed in numerous churches and chapels in Birmingham and the surrounding area by John Banfield. These included St. Paul’s in Hockley – a beautiful church by the way – the Unitarian New Meeting and St. John’s in Walmley, Sutton Coldfield. The latter church was consecrated in September 1845 in the presence of none other than the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel and Banfield turned up and played ‘in a very creditable manner’ the organ he had built! Banfield’s reputation brought him work across the country. When a prestigious commission was received from St. Paul’s in Liverpool to build ‘a large and splendid organ … (with) novel features’ – the largest in fact ever seen in the town – journalists were invited to inspect the finished organ at the factory in Hockley; ‘the magnitude of the work and the exquisite finish took us by surprise’, it was observed. And then, in July 1860, disaster struck. A fire at the factory caused the roof to fall in. ‘Not a vestige of the property escaped’, it was reported.
Banfield’s son joined the business in the mid-1850s. A report of an organ built by the two men in September 1866 is informative: ‘The organ … presents a very neat appearance … The body of the instrument is of stained deal and above the keyboard are six carved angels which serve as brackets to support the front pipes, which are of plain metal and twenty seven in number. There are three rows of keys, and competent judges speak in high terms as to the quality of the instrument, which fully sustains the reputation of the builder.’ The British Organ Archive at the University of Birmingham does not include any material relating to Banfield & Son, but a small collection of papers from 1860 can be found in Warwickshire County Record Office.
Gradually the younger Banfield took over most of the work. He was responsible for rebuilding the organ in St. Martin’s Church in Birmingham in 1875. The organ installed in St. Michael’s Church in Sutton Coldfield the following year was also undertaken by him. This church had been consecrated in 1857 and the spire was added in 1871. Up until 1876 the congregation had been accompanied by a harmonium when they sang hymns. Their new organ cost £365. An organist was hired on a salary of £15 per annum. For more information about the organ and this church I recommend the excellent history written by E.M. Joiner in 1957.
Known for their high quality of workmanship, John Banfield & Son were one of the best-known organ manufacturers in the country. And they had links with Sutton Coldfield – they installed the organs at St. John’s and St. Michael’s and the son spent his final years, and died, in the town.
Stephen Roberts, August 2020