VERONICA HEATH learns about the history of Morpeth Pipe Band.
A FRIEND who lives in southern England once told me that the way to enjoy pipe bands was from a safe distance. Well, she isn't a Geordie, and whenever I see our Morpeth Pipe Band on parade I give them a cheer.
Pipe bands are still an important part of the heritage of market towns in northern Britain. The office of piper was - and still is - often hereditary, the skills either with pipe or drum being passed down from father to son.
A 16th century account compares the bagpipe with the harp - the one for war, the other for peace. Bagpipes put a swagger in the weariest step over the heather or on the high road, and a regiment marching though its home town with the pipes playing is surely a spectacle to bring tears to the driest eye.
Amateur bands, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire, used to consist mostly of working men engaged in mills, ironworks or collieries, and the demand from the army for martial music helped keep bands going. The rules of some of the music are still not known; they are presumed to relate to those of Gaelic poetry, because it was when the official order of poets fell into decay that piping families began to grow in importance.
The British Army went into the First World War with seven pipe bands and came out of it with more than a hundred, so potent was their skirl and drone at driving men over the top. In the Second World War, one piper won the Victoria Cross for continuing to play while lying, mortally wounded, on the sand at El Alamein. Today the Army has two pipe bands, Highland and Lowland, but martial music is still used to keep regiments in step and morale high.
There has been a pipe band in Morpeth since 1913, but it was not until 1917 that it became fully organised; it is still playing today. Apparently, Sir George Renwick, who was excavating the remains of the old abbey on the outskirts of the town, heard some pipers playing by the river and, on being told that they were trying to organise a pipe band, he offered to buy them uniforms and equipment. The Gordon tartan of the uniform was chosen by Lady Renwick.
By 1923 the band - made up entirely of Morpeth men - was playing for local charities. One of the regular dates was to play at the new year's dinner given by Sir George Renwick for the inmates of the workhouse, and the custom was carried over to the Thomas Taylor Homes when the workhouse closed. The Morpeth Pipe Band also played for the returning soldiers at the end of the First World War.
In 1932 the band appointed its first drum major: his mace was made from an ash stick which was taken from Mitford sawmill and turned at Swinney's engineering works in Morpeth. Subsequently, the band was presented with a new mace in 1955 by Mr T. Young, and this is still used on special occasions by the drum major.
Since 1938 the band has always provided a piper to play for the Mayor of Morpeth at the civic reception after the robing ceremony. With the coming of war in 1939 and the subsequent call-up, the band was reduced to three members: two pipers and a drummer. These three still turned out to all civic occasions and on New Year's Eve 1940, while playing outside the town hall, a piper stood up to his knees in snow. After the war the band soon regained strength and continued to play at various carnivals and shows in the area, and in 1949 they were able to replace their uniforms, probably from ex-army stock.
Traditionally, the band members were drawn from Morpeth but, as personal travel became easier, they began to be drawn from all parts of Northumberland and even further afield. During the 1980s there was an encouraging influx of new members and a subsequent need for new uniforms and equipment. This operation was co-ordinated by the band's president, John Temple, and chairman Dalton Hutchinson, and really started off in 1984. With dogged determination, the band was equipped with grants and donations secured as well as funds to buy new full dress uniforms.
When Pipe Sergeant Stewart Todd and Dalton Hutchinson visited me, Stewart told me that there are still bands playing not only in Morpeth but also in Seaton Delaval, Whitley Bay and - south of the Tyne - South Shields, Newton Aycliffe and Houghton-le-Spring. “We have people playing today from 70 years of age and over down to nine and 10 years,” he told me. “Girls as well as boys are playing. We rehearse twice a week in the Boys' Brigade Hall in Morpeth and have a beginners' night in St James's Church Hall every week.
Morpeth pipers play at the start of the annual road race to Newcastle.
“The band has its own supply of instruments, but most people like to supply their own. This spring we were in Copenhagen for a contest, and last year we played in Dunoon in Scotland, and took 18 pipers and drummers to the European Pipe Band Championships in Belgium. We regularly go to Peebles, Pitlochry and to highland games meetings. We also have links with the Newcastle branch of the Royal Scottish Dance Society, Alnwick Fair and other dance groups throughout the area, and we perform at a wide variety of galas, parades and local events.”
Stewart emphasised that young players were the key to the future of the Morpeth Pipe Band, which is committed to training; new players are always needed. Every two years the band still pipes the boundary ride around Morpeth's old town boundaries, stopping at various boundaries before returning into town - a custom which dates from the need to check fences and boundaries. Long may the Morpeth Pipe Band play on. •
* The Quarter-master of Morpeth Pipe Band, Allan Brown, can be contacted by telephone (01670) 513401 or e-mail: broonclan4i-tuffnet.co.uk