Jennings Organs for Schools, 1958 to 1960

In the summer of 1957 Tom began placing adverts in a series of journals published for the world of education. The 1950s and 1960s in Britain were a boom time for the building of new schools, and with that expansion came an expansion also in the number of journals and magazines published. Aimed at teachers, school boards, governors, and other "educationalists", these covered a wide range of subjects: government policy, innovations in teaching methods, the wisdom of arranging dining halls in a particular way, successes of particular establishments, and so on. Audio-visual aids - televisions, projectors, sound systems - were of increasing interest too.

Jennings was not alone in inclining to the education market. The Miller Organ Company had already recognised that schools were an increasingly active market, and following Jennings, Selmer, Compton, and Burge began advertising too.

Tom's first ad was placed in July 1957:

July 1957.

The series of organs mentioned was the "V-series", which had been launched in mid 1956. Various points of interest: delivery possible around 8 weeks after the order had been placed; every note independently generated; "we demonstrate every model in your own building".

April 1958.

In May 1958 a new advert was devised, and published on a monthly basis through to September 1959, the two organs in view being the Models A and C:

August 1959.

November 1959, the last of the initial series of ads placed by Tom, the organs illustrated still being the Model A and Model C, as above:

November 1959.

A short list of the schools said by Jennings to have bought Jennings organs in the late 1950s:

Bolton, Farnworth Grammar School.

Goole Grammar School, Yorks.

Leamington, St Mary's Convent.

Leicester, Abington School.

Lincoln, City School.

London, Bible College.

London, Spurgeons College.

London, Spencer Park School.

Loughborough College School.

Storrington Priory, Chapel.

Engineers from the organ department would oversee the transportation and set up. Some models were "higher maintenance" than others. Even in "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" (1968 to 1970) and "Vox Sound Limited" (1970-1973) days, requests still came in for the repair of Jennings valve organs. Rodney Angell got so fed up that he designed transistor-based circuits to replace the valve originals in one model. He recalled installing at least one set of these in an organ in the Canary Islands.

1960

In 1960, Tom kicked off a third and fourth series of ads, which again came out on a monthly basis.

In August and September 1960 he pulled out the stops (sorry), promoting, probably a little optimistically, the Model G. 1975 guineas was beyond the reach of most schools. An almost identical ad published in August 1960 gave the price as 1850 guineas.

September 1960.

The mention of the Model G as being "Ex Works" helps date the flyer below:

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