Small Pipes and Not So Small Pipes

I didn’t rush away this morning as the first target was the Chantry Bagpipe Museum in Morpeth. In hindsight with the way the trip worked out the site I was on wasn’t ideal as I first drove much of the same way as I did yesterday but that was partly down to a change of plans, I’d have been better stopping at a site a bit further north. It didn’t really matter, it’s nice countryside anyway! 

Problem one in Morpeth, how to pay for the car park. There seemed a dearth of ticket machines, so I assumed it must be free, on the way out I found the one single machine and yes, the sign said 24 hours free parking so that was a bonus. I was ready for a coffee so stopped off at the bus station cafe/deli (yes, it really is a bus station deli). I realised I’d been oop North long enough when I said, “Thanks, pet!” to the waitress. 😊

The Chantry Museum has been on the visit list for a few years now, ever since I went to Woodhorn Colliery Museum. I do have a liking for the Northumbrian Small Pipes, which are very different to the Scottish Highland Bagpipes in several respects, the main one being that you can listen to them close up (the latter are best heard from an adjacent mountain top to the piper 😀 ). The small pipes are the last surviving English pipes but it’s likely they owe more to the French Musette than the other British varieties, although they do have similarities to the Irish uilleann pipes. The museum does cover other pipes, including the Scottish Half Long Pipes, which I’ll confess I’d never heard of. 

The museum is combined with the tourist information, gift shop and poetry library. You’ll be pleased to know I didn’t buy a set of pipes (they don’t have any and I know my limitations) but I did add two books to my North East Steam collection, both of which may help with the current model build, especially as unusually  one of them includes colour plates - it’s difficult discerning liveries in black and white!

After a quick stock up in Morrisons I took the coastal route North with the intention of stopping off somewhere, unfortunately given that it’s August and the time of day I couldn’t get parked in either Seahouses or Bamburgh (or at least not near enough for it to be worthwhile) so I continued on. I’m not sure why but the SatNav brought me in to the Edinburgh  site, which is West of the city, along the waterfront instead of around the bypass. We last went that way about 45 years ago when a truck driver led Dad, towing the caravan, to the Forth Bridge. It was Festival time and they’d had a conversation in a lay-by short of the city, apparently everywhere else was gridlocked. I did get a glimpse of Britannia in passing but with road works and bizarre lane markings* I was having to concentrate. 

Checking in at the site was as smooth as usual, it’s not somewhere I’d choose normally but it’s in the right place! I’ve found a pitch at one end so at least I’m largely undisturbed by the traffic, with 148 pitches that can be a problem. Although it’s a city centre site it is well surrounded by trees but security is an issue, they provide secure bike lockers for example. 

 

*At one point there were bus stops on the left, the lane had a straight on arrow then suddenly became a right turn lane and you had to make the vehicle jump 10’ to the left! That caught three of us out.