This website is intended as an accessible summary of current (and developing) understanding rather than as an academic treatise, and so statements and sources are not formally referenced throughout. Stated facts are, however, drawn from primary sources, recent research in actual and digital archives, or from reputable publications. Where speculation is introduced it is clearly specified.
Please note: several of the subjects mentioned in this website are reliably covered in detail on other websites such as that of the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society and in Wikipedia articles. This website is not intended to supplant such sites, but rather to complement them specifically with reference to North Shields. The reader is strongly recommended to consult those websites and the other sources listed below.
I should like to acknowledge my gratitude to the friends who have encouraged me in this project and have actively assisted in aspects such as evaluating and considering the implications of the contents of the Fenwick Collection and other evidence, discussing ideas and checking drafts. Without them this would be a poorer effort.
Archives, Genealogical research and other websites
- Newcastle Central Library Local Studies Centre
- North Shields Library Local Studies Centre
- Gatehead Libraries Local Studies Centre
- Northumberland Natural History Society Archive
- British Library
- Ancestry UK
- International Genealogical Index
- Free Reg
- North East Inheritance Database
- Dusty Documents – English Parish Records On-line
- British Newspaper Archive
- Northumbrian Pipers Society website
- Folk Archive Research North East (FARNE)
- The Archive of the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum
- Ben Beck’s family history website
Manuscript and unpublished sources
- Northumberland Small Pipe Music collected by J W Fenwick
- Robert Bewick’s Mss note books
- The Cornelius Stanton Mss tune books, in facsimile and transcription, produced by the Northumberland Music Heritage Society
- Unpublished notes on the Reid Family of Stamfordham, by J. Say
- Unpublished thesis on the history of Northumbrian pipes, G. W. H. Wells, Doctoral Thesis (D.Phil), Oxford University, 2010
Publications
- “A Favourite Collection of Tunes with Variations adapted for the Northumberland Small Pipes, Violin or Flute” (commonly known as “Peacock’s Tunebook”), pub. William Wright, Newcastle, c.1800-05 (facsimile online, and modern editions published by Northumbrian Pipers’ Society, Morpeth, 1999, ISBN 0 902510 19 3, and also transcribed into modern notation by Valerio Pellicioni.
- “A Memoir of Thomas Bewick” with introduction by Iain Bain, pub. Oxford University Press, 1975, ISBN 0 19 281271 8
- “Watercolours and Drawings of Thomas Bewick and his Workshop Apprentices”, by Iain Bain, pub. The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd., London, 1981, ISBN 0 906795 85 0
- “Thomas Bewick, The Complete Illustrative Work” by Nigel Tattersfield, pub. British Library, 2011, ISBN 978 0 7123 0686 7
- “Bewick Pipe Tunes” by Matt Seattle, originally pub. Dragonfly Publications, and repub. Northumbrian Pipers’ Society, 2010, Morpeth, ISBN 978 0 902510 32 6
- The Magazine (later Journal) of the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society, various issues, including particularly the important articles by I. Bain, (1982) and L. Jessop (1991) and the 2012 and 2014 issues. The volumes to Vol.17 (1996) are archived and accessible on the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society website.
- “Cherryburn Times”, (The Journal of the Bewick Society), Vo.6, No.4, Winter 2013
- “Northumbrian Minstrelsy” Ed. J Collingwood Bruce and John Stokoe, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1882
- “Archaeologia Aeliana”, The Publications of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, various volumes
- “The Life of James Allan” by Andrew Wight, pub. Mackenzie & Dent, Newcastle, 1818
- “New Improved and Authentic Life of James Allan” by James Thompson, pub. Mackenzie & Dent, Newcastle, 1828, available as a download from Internet Archive
- “The Lay of the Reedwater Minstrel” by Robert Roxby, 1st edition 1809 and 2nd edition, 1832, Newcastle
- An Historical, Topographical, and Descriptive Account of the County of Northumberland … etc.”, Eneas Mackenzie, pub. Mackenzie & Dent, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1825, available as a download from Internet Archive.
- Local directories, including Humble 1824Parson & White’s 1826/7, Pigot’s 1834, White’s 1847, Ward’s 1850, Slater’s 1855, Whelland’s 1855,
- “Shiels to Shields, The Life Story of a North Tyneside Town” written by Danny Lawrence, published by Carnegie Publishing Ltd, Lancaster, 2016, ISBN 978-1-85936-228-0