Joseph William Walker founded his business in 1827, based initially in Soho, having apprenticed with George Pike England since 1818. On his death in 1870, aged 68, his son James John took over the business single-handed until his sons joined him.
Major instruments by this firm, one of the country's greatest, include those at Bristol Cathedral (1907), St Margaret's Church, Westminster (1897), Romsey Abbey (1858), St Mary's Church, Portsea (1891), and, closer to home, Harrow School Chapel (1921).
The firm of J.W.Walker and Sons, Ltd., continues to this day, and more recent examples of its work include Blackburn Cathedral (1967), Lancing College (1986 - using much pipework from the previous 1914 Walker organ), Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (1967) and Bolton Town Hall (1982).

In the two decades leading up to the twentieth century organ building saw some radical new ideas be toyed with - J.W.Walker and Sons remained firmly traditional, relying on diapasons of 'magnificent "rolling" tone' of startling proportions to form the foundation of their instruments.
No wonder the esteemed Parisian builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll is reputed to have described such organs as "toujours rosbif!"

Nonetheless, in the spirit of progression, Walkers developed their own style of reed voicing, including rather strange 'pepper pot' caps on the resonators

Samuel Frederick Dalladay built or rebuilt some ten organs in Hastings.
A Londoner, Dalladay was a skilled performer who gave recitals at the Royal Albert Hall and the Crystal Palace in his youth. In 1886 he moved to Folkestone and opened an Academy of Music; he became organist at St. John's Church, Folkestone.
His organ-building activities are known to date from as early as 1903, though it was not until just before World War I that he moved to Hastings and opened the Sussex Organ Works, which remained in business until about 1939. From time to time he built instruments for churches throughout England, though most of his work was in the southern counties.