Northumbrian Small Pipes Society

However, despite its short life, it played a significant role, publishing the first tutor for the instrument, J. W. Fenwick's Instruction Book for the Northumbrian Small-Pipes (1896), holding regular meetings, and organising annual competitions.

In 1906, when the Cloughs played for King Edward VII at Alnwick Castle, an account of this in the Berwickshire News stated that the Northumbrian Small Pipes Society had done some good work in reviving interest, but that 'seven winters had passed without it giving any signs of life'.

In the 1850s, the Society of Antiquaries had started to collect tune and song manuscripts, and their Ancient Melodies Committee continued its work over the subsequent years.

In 1882, the Northumbrian Minstrelsy was published, placing some of their researches before a wider public, and the second part of this book was devoted specifically to smallpipe tunes.

One significant member was the artist Joseph Crawhall II (1821–1896), who had a deep interest in the culture and music of Northumberland, and had published A Beuk o' Newcassell Sangs in 1888.

He was a banker and a serious amateur artist, and an active member of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, being their Curator of Museums from 1890 to 1905.

He owned a rare, possibly unique, set of six-drone pipes by Reid, and an illustration of these is the frontispiece of Fenwick's tutor.

These individuals primarily resided in a geographic range extending from mid-Durham, including locales like Willington, Darlington, and Bishop Auckland, to the western areas of Northumberland, reaching Haltwhistle.

Notably, almost half of the listed players, totaling seventeen, originated from the industrial and mining hubs of Tyneside and southeast Northumberland.

This subset of nine players, comprising a quarter of the identified musicians, hailed from the North Shields and southeast Northumberland regions.

Certainly the newer Society had much more involvement from pipers themselves; Tom himself acted as a Competition judge in the first three years, though he declined to be a vice-president, stating that doing the work properly would require more of his time than he could spare.

The newer society, as its name suggests, thus had far more involvement from pipers themselves than its short-lived predecessor, and this difference may explain why it survived, while the NSPS did not.