Joseph Richardson (musician)

Many famous visitors came to the Lake District, including the Bishop of London, and word soon spread about the musical stones.

Here, he and his three young sons received a lot of help from the organist of Seaforth Parish Church, Mr. John Davies, before they left for Manchester.

News of the Rock Harmonicon was spreading across the length and breadth of the country, and Joseph started receiving requests for performances away from the big cities.

Leamington, Cheltenham, Oxford, Reading were each visited before another spell in London, this time at the rooms of George Stanley in Piccadilly.

With ticket prices pegged at sixpence in the balcony, and one shilling for the promenade, the policy was clearly to encourage people to attend, and it worked.

The afternoons were matinee performances and would invariably attract the local gentry, nobility and even aristocracy from the neighbourhood.

Joseph would always invite the audience to come up to the instrument either during the interval or after the close of the concert, and would take great delight in answering the many questions put to him, and would allow guests to play the notes whilst explaining to them the story of their construction.

- Messieurs Richardson and Sons had the honour of attending with their unrivalled Band at Buckingham Palace, by express command, on Wednesday last, the 23rd of February, and performed a grand selection of music, from the works of the most eminent composers, in the presence of her Majesty the Queen, Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe Coburg, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Gloucester, the Marquis and Marchioness of Clanricarde, the Earl of Aberdeen, &c. At the close of the performance, Her Majesty and Prince Albert were graciously pleased to express their entire approbation of the music selected for the Evening’s Entertainment, as well as the brilliant manner in which the pieces were executed, and entered into a most familiar conversation with the Messieurs Richardson, as to the invention and arrangement of their instruments, to all of which queries these Musical Gentlemen gave full and explicit answers.”[5] As their popularity increased, so did the extent of Joseph’s ambition for his instrument.

These were commissioned from the internationally renowned inventor named Cornelius Ward and are believed to be the first pedal-operated bass drums to be made.

Whilst they were undertaking the tour of Ireland, they were contracted to perform at Lismore Castle, the Irish seat of the Duke of Devonshire.

The castle was brilliantly illuminated, with the serpentine walks beneath it that ran alongside the river tastefully emblazoned with transparent lamps every few yards.

A huge dinner party was held on the Tuesday of the visit, but the pièce de résistance was saved for the Thursday evening.

The Messrs. Richardson and Sons had the honor of performing on their powerful and brilliant Rock, Bell, and Steel Band, before His Grace, the Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Constance Gower, the Hon.

– The rock portion of their band, is found in some mountain fastnesses in Cumberland, and the powers of harmonious modulation it displays, are really wonderful.

The band couldn’t continue without him, and father and sons made their way back to England and down to London, where Joseph had purchased the ‘Green Man’ Public House the previous year.

“The Morning Advertiser of the 17th inst., contained a record of the death of Mr. Joseph Richardson, a Cumberland worthy, whose abilities as a musician, and remarkable discoveries we many years ago made known to our readers.

The perfecting of the Rock Band, cost Mr. Richardson an immense amount of labour and entailed upon him and his family considerable privations during a period of no less than 13 years.

At length, however, his perseverance was rewarded with the most unbounded success, and he produced an instrument from which, to adopt the language of a former notice, the softest tones of the flute, the sweetest tones of the piano, the shrillest pipings of the fife, and the loudest and most sonorous peals of the organ can be sent forth with a rapidity which produces the most ravishing sensations and fills the mind of the listener with wonder and delight.

This show told the story of how the Musical Stones were discovered by Peter Crosthwaite and made famous by Joseph Richardson.

[4] “The Rock, Bell, and Steel Band: The Story of Joseph Richardson and his Musical Stones”, by John H. Phillips.