Collection: Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Musical instruments

  The William Alfred Cocks Collection was exhibited in the Society of Antiquaries in the Black Gate in Newcastle upon Tyne and consisted of about 100 complete sets of bagpipes, a library of 300 books, including some hand-written manuscripts, photographs, personal correspondence and numerous items of ephemera. The exhibition was on display at the Black Gate for 15 years, during which time Colin Ross became Honorary Curator, succeeding R A S Cowper, but by the mid 1980’s, however, the Society was concerned about the upkeep of the collection and it was moved into the restored the medieval Chantry in the centre of Morpeth and the Bagpipe Museum was formally opened in 1987 by HRH Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon; the first Curator was Gillian Crawley. A second collection, of modern bagpipes in playing condition, was commissioned in the early 1900’s to complement the historical Cocks bequest. The idea for this collection originated from a committed friend of the museum, who went on to fund the enterprise. The 1991 Collection consists of a dozen sets of high quality instruments from around Europe.

  Library

  A small collection of books about music in general as well as works specifically on the bagpipes, together with some printed music 20th century.

  Subjects

  Music; Music scores; Arts and Recreation

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC