Northumbrian Small Pipes Society
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Northumbrian Small Pipes Society
The Northumbrian Small Pipes Society was founded in 1893, by members of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne to promote interest in, and playing of Northumbrian smallpipes, and their music. As it only continued in existence for seven years, it is now regarded primarily as a short-lived precursor to the Northumbrian Pipers' Society. However, despite its short life, it played a significant role, publishing the first tutor for the instrument, J. W. Fenwick's ''Instruction Book for the Northumbrian Small-Pipes'' (1896), holding regular meetings, and organising annual competitions. In 1894 and 1896-7, the society published Transactions, as well as publishing an account of their Annual Meeting of 1897. As well as Members, who paid an annual 5s. subscription, there was a category of Honorary Playing Members. Since the society's records include the names and addresses of all members, of either kind, they have listed the names and addresses for 37 known pipers. Two articles in ...
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Society Of Antiquaries Of Newcastle Upon Tyne
The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, the oldest provincial antiquarian society in England, was founded in 1813. It is a registered charity under English law. It has had a long-standing interest in the archaeology of the north-east of England, particularly of Hadrian's Wall, but also covering prehistoric and medieval periods, as well as industrial archaeology. It has also maintained an interest in the traditional music of the north-east of England, and particularly the Northumbrian smallpipes. The Society maintains several important collections. Its archaeological collection is held at the Great North Museum; its bagpipe collection, based on the collection assembled by William Cocks, is held in the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum; its collection of manuscripts is held at the Northumberland Record Office. Its journal is ''Archaeologia Aeliana'', first published in 1822, and now published annually. The Great North Museum is also home to the Society's library, holding ...
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Joseph Crawhall II
Joseph Crawhall II (1821–1896) was born at West House, Newcastle. He was a ropemaker, author, and watercolour painter. Life Crawhall, like his father (also Joseph), a Newcastle ropemaker, was interested in writing and watercolour painting. He went on to produce many books, illustrated by himself. His first (printed by himself in 1859) was entitled ''The Compleatest Angling Booke That Ever was Writ''. The second edition (printed in 1881) contained illustrations from his son, Joseph Crawhall and James Guthrie (1859–1930). Crawhall was a friend of Charles Keene (1823–1891), illustrator of ''Punch'', and they worked together for over 200 drawings for the journal. There are 21 albums of these drawings in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. Joseph Crawhall II was a man of many talents. As well as a wood engraver and writer, he was a businessman, patron of the arts, campaigner for the preservation of architecture, collaborator of Charles Keene, book designer, col ...
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English Folklore
English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Christian, and Germanic folklore. During the Renaissance in the 16th century, England looked to more European texts to develop a national identity. English folklore has continued to differ according to region, although there are shared elements across the country. Its folktales include the traditional Robin Hood tales and the Brythonic-inspired Arthurian legend, and their stories often contained a moral imperative stemming from Christian values. The folktales, characters and creatures are often derived from aspects of English experience, such as topography, architecture, real people, or real events. History Before England was founded in the year 927, Wessex and its surrounding areas' cultures were transformed by the invasion of the Danish Kin ...
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English Folk Music
The folk music of England is a tradition-based music which has existed since the later medieval period. It is often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music. Folk music traditionally was preserved and passed on orally within communities, but print and subsequently audio recordings have since become the primary means of transmission. The term is used to refer both to English traditional music and music composed or delivered in a traditional style. There are distinct regional and local variations in content and style, particularly in areas more removed from the most prominent English cities, as in Northumbria, or the West Country. Cultural interchange and processes of migration mean that English folk music, although in many ways distinctive, has significant crossovers with the music of Scotland. When English communities migrated to the United States, Canada and Australia, they brought their folk traditions with them, and many of the songs were preserved by i ...
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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 ...
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John Peacock (piper)
John Peacock (c. 1756 in Morpeth – 1817 in Newcastle) was one of the finest Northumbrian smallpipers of his age, and probably a fiddler also, and the last of the Newcastle Waits. He studied the smallpipes with Old William Lamshaw, of Morpeth, and later with Joseph Turnbull, of Alnwick. His playing was highly regarded in his lifetime: Thomas Bewick, the engraver, who also lived and worked in Newcastle, wrote ''Some time before the American War broke out, there had been a lack of musical performers upon our streets, and in this interval, I used to engage John Peacock, our inimitable performer, to play on the Northumberland or Small-pipes; and with his old tunes, his lilts, his pauses, and his variations, I was always excessively pleased.'' William Green, piper to the Duke of Northumberland from 1806, considered him the best small pipes player he ever heard in his life. He is also closely associated with the first printed collection of music for smallpipes, ''A Favorite C ...
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Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum
The Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum is located in Morpeth Chantry, Morpeth, Northumberland, England. The museum, founded in 1987, contains a large collection of historic bagpipes, especially, but not exclusively, historic Northumbrian smallpipes and Border pipes, mainly based on the collection of William Alfred Cocks (1892-1971). The collection had initially been housed in the Black Gate, Newcastle upon Tyne, the home of the city's Society of Antiquaries. The collection also includes a large collection of bagpipe music, both in print and in manuscript, and Cocks's collection of photographs and press cuttings relating to bagpipes; many of these refer to the early years of the Northumbrian Pipers' Society. The current curator is Anne Moore. The museum provides a venue for the regular meetings of the Northumbrian Pipers' Society. In September 2008, disastrous flooding in central Morpeth forced the successful evacuation of the entire collection. After extensive repairs and refur ...
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Old Tom Clough
Old Tom Clough (1828 – 1885), was an English player of the Northumbrian pipes, or Northumbrian smallpipes. He was born into a family of miners who had also been pipers for several generations; his son Henry, grandson Tom, and great-grandson 'Young' Tom were pipers too. He is thus a central figure in a family tradition linking the earliest days of the modern instrument to almost the present day. 'Old Tom' is the first of the family whom we know much about. He was, like all of his family, a pitman, initially working at Old Hartley, where his father Henry also worked. Henry played both Union pipes and Northumbrian smallpipes, and parts of his Union pipes still survive, while his 9-key set of smallpipes by Robert Reid remained in the family's possession into the 20th century. Tom later moved to Newsham, being hired as a sinker in 1849, working on the Cowpen 'C', or 'Isabella' pit which was begun in October 1848. A sinker was a specialist in the sinking and lining of new pit sha ...
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Robert Spence Watson
Robert Spence Watson (8 June 1837 – 2 March 1911) was an English solicitor, reformer, politician and writer. He became famous for pioneering labour arbitrations. Life and career He was born in Gateshead, the second child of Sarah (Spence) and Joseph Watson. After some early tutoring, he received his secondary education at Bootham School, York and began studying at University College, London in 1853; he did not complete his degree there, but during that time, and later, he travelled abroad. He returned to the North East in 1860 and became a solicitor. He began a legal practice with his father under the name J. & R S Watson and he remained in practice there for the rest of his life. In 1862 he became Secretary to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and held that position for thirty-one years. His work led to the Society accumulating the largest independent library outside London. On 9 June 1863 he married Elizabeth Richardson at the Friends’ meeti ...
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Thomas Hair (musician)
Thomas Hair (1779 – 1854) was a violinist and player of the Northumbrian smallpipes, who lived in Bedlington. This town, and the surrounding district of Bedlingtonshire, were until 1844 a detached part of County Durham, but were then made part of Northumberland. He was described in his obituary as suffering sight loss, and by Waddell as 'blind'; his will is signed with a cross, suggesting he was unable to read or write. This seems superficially inconsistent with him subscribing to books of local interest; however, somebody else could have read the books to him. Music Thomas taught the Northumbrian smallpipes to both Thomas Todd and Old Tom Clough, to Henry Cotes, the vicar of Bedlington, and to at least one other 'clever pupil', referred to as 'poor blind Tom'. This last pupil may well be Thomas Norman, who was also blind, and who inherited Hair's pipes. A tune named after him, Thomas Hair's Hornpipe, survives in the notebook of his younger contemporary William Thomas Green ...
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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 ...
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Charles Keene (artist)
Charles Samuel Keene (10 August 1823 – 4 January 1891) was an English artist and illustrator, who worked in black and white. Early life The son of Samuel Browne Keene, a solicitor, he was born at Hornsey. Educated at the Ipswich School until his sixteenth year, he early showed artistic leanings. Two years after the death of his father he was articled to a London solicitor, but, the occupation proving uncongenial, he was removed to the office of an architect, Mr Pukington. His spare time was now spent in drawing historical and nautical subjects in watercolor. For these trifles his mother, to whose energy and common sense he was greatly indebted, soon found a purchaser, through whom he was brought to the notice of the Whympers, the wood-engravers. This led to his being bound to them as apprentice for five years. His earliest known design is the frontispiece, signed Chas. Keene, to ''The Adventures of Dick Boldhero in Search of his Uncle, &c.'' (Darton & Co., 1842). His term ...
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