ABSTRACT
It would be idle to suppose that, even now, Sweetland is well known throughout England as an organ builder, and he is even less known for his other accomplishments. In many ways this is not surprising since he seems never to have consciously publicized his work, preferring to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations for business. No general advertisements such as those placed by other builders in the musical press have come to light and, although he took care to see that his organs were properly described as to their specifications in any report of their openings, 1 he was not obsessive in ensuring that reports appeared in the press. A further possible bar to his general recognition was the fact that, apart from some instruments built in his early years (Ironville 1851, Lincoln 1855, Hanley, Staffs. 1858, Nantwich 1859), the great majority of his organs were built for churches or chapels in the West Country. It may be that he was content to take on work where he could get it at the start of his career, even perhaps undercutting established builders (see Chapter 4 and Table 4.1). Despite the arrival of the railway in Bath just before he set up in business, Sweetland never built an organ for a London church or chapel, the sole representative of his work in the capital being the instrument built for the Bath-born artist Edwin Long. He was also unsuccessful in getting work in the important churches of his adopted city, where London builders gained the most prestigious jobs (Bath Abbey, Hill 1868; Bathwick, St Mary’s, Willis 1868), only St Michael’s, Manvers Street Baptist and the Argyle Chapel amongst the central churches providing a home for one of his instruments. He seemed content to construct two-manual organs for country churches and chapels, and these customers benefited from his honest approach. Such instruments, however well built, do not ensure for their builder a national reputation, and it is interesting to conjecture what Sweetland’s reputation might have been had he built organs for any collegiate churches or cathedrals. Bicknell has remarked that to make serious headway in the organ trade at this period required either family connections within the trade – as with Hill, Walker or Gray & Davison – a wealthy patron (Lewis) or ruthless efficiency or cost cutting. 2
