Support to stop closure of Northumbrian bagpipe museum

Date: 2004-08-06, Publication: The Journal

A world-renowned jazz musician has thrown his weight behind a campaign to avert the closure of a bagpipes museum.

US saxophonist Marvin 'Doc' Holladay has toured and recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington.

And he has just spoken out against the possible closure of the Chantry Bagpipe Museum in Morpeth, Northumberland.

Marvin is one of a growing number of musicians, academics, music enthusiasts and culture buffs protesting at the prospect of the museum shutting down and the collection of 70 Northumbrian small pipes being re-moved from Morpeth.

Kansas-born Marvin, who researches world music, visited the Morpeth bagpipe museum in 2002 and has submitted his objections to its potential closure.

He said: "I was greatly excited by the prospect of being able to visit a museum of these instruments, as they are known throughout the world of ethnomusicology as the voice of the ancestors of Northumbria.

"Not only do these pipes express the essence of Northumbrian people, but they directly connect us to the essences of our ancestors. The loss of this would be catastrophic to those young children who would have only a reference in a book for their understanding of the historical significance of Northumbrian people.

"I was invited to a private showing at the museum for a demonstration of the sound, beauty and variety of Northumbrian pipes, by which I have been greatly enriched and for which I will be eternally grateful."

The future of the bagpipe museum, which attracts about 6,500 visitors a year, has been thrown into doubt by a review of the Chantry by Castle Morpeth Borough Council, which wants to cut the building's £107,000-a-year running costs.

A public consultation on the future of the 13th Century Chantry was launched this week, but consultants have already said the bagpipe museum should be closed or moved outside Morpeth.

Chantry deputy manager Penny Gough yesterday said staff and supporters were very grateful for the backing of experts like Marvin.

She said: "It is only at the consultation stage, but we have already had incredible support and feedback from visitors and local people and have received emails and letters from universities, musicians and others in the UK and overseas alarmed at the thought of the museum closing."

Castle Morpeth Council wants to make the Chantry a more commercial operation and is considering axeing its museum, tourist information centre and craft workshops and replacing them with a tea room, restaurant, art gallery, music café, wine bar or shop.

Consultants say an alternative home will have to be found for the bagpipe museum.

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