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Joe Hutton (piper)
Joe Hutton (August 16, 1923 – July 17, 1995) was a Northumbrian smallpipe player and fiddler. Life and career Hutton was born in Halton Lea Gate, near Haltwhistle in the west of Northumberland. Like his father, Jake, he was a shepherd, and a musician - he started on the fiddle, but took up the Northumbrian smallpipes after hearing P.J. Liddell and G.G. Armstrong playing at a concert in 1936. He started on a James Reid set from Halton Lea Gate, refurbished by G.G. Armstrong, a noted piper from Hexham, and he took lessons in the instrument from Armstrong. He made rapid progress, and won a competition as a novice, the following year. Armstrong made him a new set of pipes in January 1938, and Joe was photographed, standing at the left, with other competitors at the Bellingham Show piping competition in 1938. He continued to play the fiddle at dances during the war years, but he continued piping, upgrading to a 17-keyed chanter, again by Armstrong, in 1943. In 1950 he began pipin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halton Lea Gate
Halton Lea Gate is a small village in Northumberland, England, on the A689 road close to the boundary of the counties of Northumberland and Cumbria. The village is part of the parish council area called Hartleyburn, and borders the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Halton Lea Farm has a Grade II listed farmhouse, the eastern end of which probably represents a large bastle. The Pennine Way long-distance footpath runs just to the east of the village. The population of Halton Lea Gate was 310 in 1901. The area was subject to extensive coal mining activity in the nineteenth century, with a later phase of mining being undertaken from the 1930s to 1958. Coal mining controversy The area has featured in the national news on account of plans to develop open cast coal mining adjacent to the village. A plan submitted in 2008 led to speculation in the local media that property values would drop by 40% as a result. The plan submitted by HM Project Developments Ltd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haltwhistle
Haltwhistle is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, east of Brampton. It had a population of 3,811 at the 2011 Census. Stone-built houses are a feature of Haltwhistle. It is one of two settlements in Great Britain which claim to be the exact geographic centre of the island, along with Dunsop Bridge in Lancashire, to the south. This is the closest community to Hadrian's Wall and to Northumberland National Park, both approximately two miles distant. The name The name Haltwhistle has nothing to do with a railway stop. Early forms of the name are Hautwesel (1240), Hautwysel (1254), Hawtewysill (1279), Hautwysell (1381), Haltwesell (Speede 1610). The second part -twistle relates to two streams or rivers. It derives from two Old English words ''twicce'' or ''twise'', 'twice', 'division into two' and ''wella'', 'stream, brook'. The second word is reduced in the compound word to ''ull'', making ''twicculla'', ''twisella''. All but one of the examples in place na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on three sides; by the Scottish Borders region to the north, County Durham and Tyne and Wear to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The fourth side is the North Sea, with a stretch of coastline to the east. A predominantly rural county with a landscape of moorland and farmland, a large area is part of Northumberland National Park. The area has been the site of a number of historic battles with Scotland. Name The name of Northumberland is recorded as ''norð hẏmbra land'' in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, meaning "the land north of the Humber". The name of the kingdom of ''Northumbria'' derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the people south of the Humber Estuary. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northumbrian Smallpipes
The Northumbrian smallpipes (also known as the Northumbrian pipes) are bellows-blown bagpipes from North East England, where they have been an important factor in the local musical culture for more than 250 years. The family of the Duke of Northumberland have had an official piper for over 250 years. The Northumbrian Pipers' Society was founded in 1928, to encourage the playing of the instrument and its music; Although there were so few players at times during the last century that some feared the tradition would die out, there are many players and makers of the instrument nowadays, and the Society has played a large role in this revival. In more recent times the Mayor of Gateshead and the Lord Mayor of Newcastle have both established a tradition of appointing official Northumbrian pipers. In a survey of the bagpipes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, the organologist Anthony Baines wrote: "It is perhaps the most civilized of the bagpipes, making no attempt to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Reid (pipemaker)
Robert Reid (1784 – 1837) is widely acknowledged as the creator of the modern form of the Northumbrian Smallpipes. He lived and worked at first in Newcastle upon Tyne, but moved later to the nearby town of North Shields at the mouth of the Tyne, probably in 1802. North Shields was a busy port at this time. The Reids were a family with a long-standing connection to piping; Robert's father Robert Reed (sic), a cabinet maker, had been a player of ''the Northumbrian big-pipes'', and an associate of James Allan, his son Robert was described later by James Fenwick as ''a beautiful player as well as maker'' of smallpipes, while Robert's son James (1814–1874) joined his father in the business. Robert died in North Shields on the 13th or 14 January 1837, and his death notice in the Newcastle Journal referred to him as a "piper, and as a maker of such instruments is known from the peer to the peasant, for the quality of their tone, and elegance of finish". He is buried in the graveyard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 1974 until 2023, Cumberland lay within Cumbria, a larger administrative area which also covered Westmorland and parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. In April 2023, Cumberland will be revived as an administrative entity when Cumbria County Council is abolished and replaced by two unitary authorities; one of these is to be named Cumberland and will include most of the historic county, with the exception of Penrith and the surrounding area. Cumberland is bordered by the historic counties of Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish counties of Dumfriesshire and Roxburghshire to the north. Early history In the Early Middle Ages, Cumbria was part of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Breckons
Tommy Breckons (1928–2009) lived all his life on his family's Foundry Farm, Bellingham, central Northumberland. He was a noted player of the Northumbrian smallpipes. Learning Tommy learned at first from G.G. Armstrong, and subsequently taking further lessons for two years from Tom Clough after Armstrong gave up teaching through ill-health. He also learned the Highland pipes - it is rare to master both instruments, with their very different fingering and sound. He was perhaps the last piper to have known the playing of the Cloughs directly. He described Tom Clough's set of exercises, which he said were similar to G.G. Armstrong's. They consisted of scales and arpeggios - the pupil would have to start slowly, and increase speed till mistakes happened. Another group of exercises, based on variation sets, are all found in the four tunes ''Fenwick of Bywell'', ''Jacky Layton'', ''Felton Lonnen'' and ''Oh dear, what can the matter be''. He also gave a description of Tom Clough's me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Pigg
Billy Pigg (1902 – 1968) was an English player of Northumbrian smallpipes. He was a vice-president and an influential member of the Northumbrian Pipers Society from 1930 until his death. Life and music He was born at Dilston Park, near Corbridge, Northumberland, in January 1902 and died in November 1968. He learned the instrument from several pipers including Tom and Henry Clough as well as Richard Mowat, but, according to Tommy Breckons, Batey of Stannington was his main teacher. Tommy later quoted Billy's reminiscences of the informal sessions at the Cloughs' and others: When he lived at Blagdon, he used to bike down to Clough's. There were fourteen or fifteen pipers all living in that area, and they took turns to play at each other's houses, including Billy's. Billy told him that when he first went to one of these sessions there were fourteen pipers in the house, ''..., and everyone was better than me! By God..., there were some good pipers. But all I had to dee was practic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topic Records
Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ''The British Folk Revival 1944-2002'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003), pp. 55-65. History The label began as an offshoot of the communist led Workers' Music Association in 1939, selling Soviet and left-wing political music by mail order. After a period of relative inactivity in the Second World War, production resumed in the later 1940s, moving towards traditional music for the emerging revival market. Up to 1949 the composer Alan Bush was involved with choral and orchestral music released on the label. Topic also produced some of the first American blues records to be commercially available in Britain. From about 1950 the two key figures of the second revival, Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd, became heavily involved, producing several records o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willy Taylor (musician)
Willy Taylor (5 January 1916 – 2 November 2000) was a fiddler from Northumberland, England. He performed with Joe Hutton and Will Atkinson as the Shepherds. Music career He was born at Lilburn Tower near Wooler. When he was a boy, he learned the fiddle. He lost the first finger of his left hand while preparing food for sheep, and he temporarily switched to melodeon before returning to the fiddle. For most of his life, he was a shepherd in the Cheviot Hills. He composed melodies in his head on the way home after a day of herding sheep. He attributed his musical style in part to the time he spent with Geordie Armstrong, a shepherd who was also a fiddler. He walked miles through hilly country to perform at dances and festivals in nearby villages. He won competitions at Northumbrian Gatherings in the early 1950s, and he was recorded by Peter Kennedy for the BBC in 1954, playing both fiddle and melodeon. He was a founding member of the Border Strathspey and Reel Society, based ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will Atkinson (musician)
Will Atkinson (31 January 1908 – 30 July 2003) was a noted traditional musician from northern Northumberland. He started off as a player of the English diatonic accordion, but was best known as a harmonica or ''moothie'' player. His playing was distinguished by a very clear sense of rhythm, with a definite lilt. He was a major figure in Northumbrian music. He was also the composer of several tunes that have entered the tradition and are played at gatherings and sessions. Biography Atkinson was born in Crookham, Northumberland in 1908. He worked as a shepherd and as a rabbit-catcher until his retirement, also working at times maintaining road signs. From his youth, until the end of his long life, he was very active and influential in traditional music circles, on both sides of the Border. He had twin sons, of whom George, who died in 1987 aged 53, was also a musician, a noted Northumbrian piper.Obituary, Northumbrian Pipers' Society Magazine, vol. 8, 1987. Will died on 30 Jul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoff Heslop
Geoff Heslop (born 3 June 1947 in Northumberland, England) is an English record producer and musician. Career After training as a recording engineer, Geoff turned to record production, producing albums for the Rubber Records label in Newcastle upon Tyne. He went on to set up the Black Crow Records label, the Coquetdale Music Publishing company (with Kathryn Tickell) and Redesdale Studios (with singer Dick Gaughan. In the 1990s he put together a 2nd publishing company with his songwriter wife Brenda Heslop named Ribbon Road Music and issued 5 albums. He now owns and runs Shipyard Studios with his daughter Jill and produces music by himself and others on their Shipyard label. Records produced by Geoff Heslop 1970s ;1972 * ''Don't Panic'' ( Pete Scott) * ''His Round'' (Tony Capstick and Hedgehog Pie) ;1973 *''Very Good Time'' (Derek Brimstone) ;1974 *''Life of a Man'' (The Buskers) *''Punch and Judy Man'' (Tony Capstick) *''There Was This Bloke'' (Mike Harding, Tony Capstick, Bill B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
