Just like buses…a story of dulcimers that just keeps ringing…

A tale of several Dulcimers written by Alan Helsdon with other keen contributors! June 2024

The Ramsey

The word Dulcimer leapt out of the regular e-mail I receive from Freecycle one day in April 2023, telling me that someone was offering one!  I didn’t need telling twice and as soon as possible was in Barford, near Norwich, collecting the instrument.  To my amazement Janet, the advertiser, lived in the next-door cottage to Billy Bennington’s old home and had known the maestro and heard him play!  Her father-in-law had spotted a dulcimer at a Sale and bought it but never got on with it.  Hardly surprising if Billy’s was the standard he was aiming for!

The sounding board (top) was badly warped and needed replacing, which Richard Blake skillfully did, restringing it at the same time.  I then delivered it to Philip Williams of Arch Instruments and Cases of Norwich (07305 284441) who did a lovely job making a bespoke case and produced specially made Indicators – sticks to sit under the strings so that beginners can see which string is which.  These have proved an essential part of the Trust’s dulcimer loan scheme.  Thanks to all three people involved.

The Winskell

Having acquired one new dulcimer for the Trust’s instrument loan scheme I thought, ‘I wonder if there are any more out there?’, and was delighted when not one but two replies arrived in response to my ‘Wanted Dulcimer’ request on Freecycle in May 2023.

First, I went to Mundesley where Rob Winskell gave me a dulcimer that had been in his family for several generations, had obviously seen a bit of life, but was in one piece apart from a few broken strings.  Between us we pieced together some elements of a possible history of the instrument:

Rob brought it to Norfolk only in February 2023, but the Winskells had been in Bow, East London until at least 1911.  Using publicly available resources I think we may list up to five previous owners as:

(1) Charles Frederick Winskell, born 1831 and died 1904

(2) Henry Winskell of Lambeth, born 1874 and died 1958.  He was recorded on the Census as a Glass and China Dealer in both 1901 and 1911 and died in the same Borough.

(3) The next owner was Herbert Winskell, born 1910 in Lambeth again, and died in 1987/8 in Crawley.  Rob’s cousin Heidi recalls both Herbert and Henry playing a dulcimer.  Herbert Winskell may have passed the instrument to his brother, Rob’s grandfather, but there is no evidence that he played it.

(4) Rob’s father and (5) one more generation brings us to Rob in Mundesley who supplied the dulcimer and to Heidi, his cousin, who supplied most of the rather scarce details.

Rob wrote to me, ‘My grandfather, Arthur Winskell was Bert’s brother.  Heidi had the Dulcimer and then passed it to my father who passed it to me. Nobody knew what to do with it and nobody wanted to throw it away.’  We’re all glad nobody did.  Thanks Rob.

Richard Blake describes it as ‘a very nice London pattern dulcimer! Despite it needing a large plate in each corner to hold it all together.  At the time of writing (May 2024) the instrument is awaiting inspection by Richard to decide how much of a restoration to attempt.  It is not pretty, but then it has survived possibly 170 years, 2 World Wars, including the Blitz, an unknown number of pubs, at least 5 generations of Winskells and several house moves.

The Goodess

This was the second response.  Clare, in Norwich, later told me:

‘In 1990 many of my friends and my partner at the time were playing in a local band. There was banjo, fiddle, accordion, guitars and percussion. I hadn’t played an instrument since childhood piano lessons. But when I saw a hammered dulcimer for sale in Hobgoblin Music’s tent at a summer festival (after all these years I can’t remember if it was Cambridge Folk Festival or WOMAD) it seemed a perfect fit for me and the band. The challenges of tuning and a full-time job meant that sadly I never learnt to play this lovely instrument. When I inherited the family piano the poor dulcimer continued to sit unused on a top shelf. So when in the summer of 2023 I heard that the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust was looking for dulcimers I was very happy to donate my instrument. It is wonderful to know that it will finally get loved and played as it deserves to be.’

It was as new when I collected it and Phil Williams made the usual excellent bespoke case and Indicators.  It is in what Richard Blake tells us is American tuning.  Thanks to all involved.

The Barry

Three dulcimers found in one year was enough – or so I thought.  Playing about with the amazing abilities of a Search Engine I discovered a site that apparently linked John Barry, he of the J B Seven and the Bond film title music, and a dulcimer.  Couldn’t be, could it?  It was!  Anglia Television’s precursor to its famous Tales of the Unexpected was called Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries, ran from September 1973 to February 1974 and included a theme tune played on a hammered dulcimer.  Unbelievably there is reverb on the already long-sustaining instrument and the melody is a far cry from the local on a Saturday night, but it’s there.  And here –   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cxeyTH2Z0

If you’re on Freecycle or something similar why not give it a go and post a ‘Wanted, dulcimer’ notice.  You never know – there might be another one just waiting to come round the corner!