English bagpipes

Two of them English; the Tenison Marginalie Psalter from Westminster and an entry into the accounts books of Edward the I of England recording the purchase of a set of bagpipes.

Writing in the Prologue about the Miller, the lines read: A baggepype wel coude he blowe and sowne, And ther-with-al he broghte us out of towne.Stone and wood carvings of bagpipes of many different types began to appear in English cathedrals and churches beginning in the 14th century; examples of such carvings may be found in Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, Manchester, Norfolk, and Shropshire.

Some British pipers and pipemakers, such as Julian Goodacre, have "reconstructed" several types of claimed extinct bagpipes, based on iconography and inconclusive textual clues.

Other enthusiasts dispute these findings, as detailed in James Merryweather's article "Regional Bagpipes: History or Bunk?

"[8] While dismissing much research as optimistic interpretations of the source materials, Merryweather claimed to have found indisputable evidence of a bagpiper in Liverpool in 1571.