Telford & Telford

Dates Active in Dublin: 

1847–1870

Business Type: 
Musical instrument maker: organ
Address(es): 

109 St Stephen's Green

Details: 

Partnership of William Telford and his brother Henry, succeeding the solo business of William Telford.

The Telford family firms were the leading Irish organ builders of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries. As well as repairing and rebuilding many older instruments in Dublin and throughout the country, they build over one hundred organs in churches and cathedrals throughout Ireland, and many instruments for colleges, convents, private houses etc. Telford & Telford exhibited at the Dublin Exhibition in 1853 and one of their organs was played at the opening of the Exhibition (The Exhibition Expositor).

Mark: 'William and Henry Telford' and 'Telford & Telford'

Henry died in 1866.

Succeeded in business by 'Telford & Sons' in 1870.

Select Product/Work List: 

Produced (as listed in Gillen)

  • Organ: Grand Masonic Lodge, 1847 [transferred to St George’s Church, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim in 1873]
  • Organ: Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, c. 1847 [previously in St Columba’s College, Stackallan, Co. Meath, 1843]
  • Organ: Christ Church Cathedral, 1857
  • Organ: St Saviour’s Priory, 1862

    • Repaired/Rebuilt

  • Organ: St Patrick's Cathedral, 1870 (Grindle)
    • See Also: 

    Telford, Edward Henry
    Telford, Henry
    Telford, William
    Telford, William Hodgson
    Telford & Sons

    Source(s): 

    Dublin Directories

    The Exhibition Expositor and Advertiser (Dublin: John Cameron for the proprietors Gunn & Cameron, 1853), I, p. 8; II, p. 8; III, p. 8; IV, p. 7; V, p. 8; VI, p. 8; VII, p. 7; VIII, p. 7; IX, p. 8; X, p. 8; XI, p. 8; XII, p. 8; XIII, p. 8; XIV, p. 8; XV, p. 8; XVI, p. 8; XVII, p. 8; XVIII, p. 8; XIX, p. 8; XX, p. 7; XXI, p. 8; XXII, p. 8; XXIII, p. 8; XXIV, p. 7; XXV, p. 8

    Hughes, Rev. S.C., The Church of S. Werburgh, Dublin (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co., 1889), p. 33

    Grindle, W.H., Irish Cathedral Music: a History of Music at the Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland (Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 1989), pp. 145–60

    Gillen, Gerard, 'William Telford and the Victorian Organ in Ireland', in Music and the Church, ed. by Gerard Gillen and Harry White, Irish Musical Studies, II (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993), pp. 108–28

    Boydell, Brian, ‘Byfield (2)’, Dublin Music Trade Card Index <http://dublinmusictrade.ie/card-index>

    Last Update: 26-09-2013