Yorkshire bagpipe

The Yorkshire bagpipe is a type of bagpipe once native to the county of Yorkshire in northern England. The instrument is currently extinct, though The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language describs the 'Yorkshire bagpipe' as being familiar in Shakespeare's time. ^[1] Late attestations of bagpipes in Yorkshire date to the 19th century and resembled the Uilleann Pipes. ^[2]

Modern researcher Kathleen Scott notes that the instrument was often likened to a sow, but not on the basis of its sound. ^[3]

When Captain Cook sailed from Whitby in 1776 he took with him a bagpiper to entertain the ship's company. When the explorers landed on the Island of Middleburg they were accorded a state welcome by the local chief; and after the Royal musicians had played, the piper responded with some English airs on his bagpipe. ^[2]

Union Pipers

The bagpipe survived in Yorkshire until the 19th century as the Union Pipes appear to have remained commonplace in the remoter Dales. David Hatton (1769–1847), a bagpipe player from Thornton, Yorkshire, is reported to have invented an instrument similar to the Irish bagpipe on which he played with much skill. ^[2] Perhaps the most notable Union Piper in Yorkshire was Billy Bolton, known as "the Dales Minstrel," died as late as 1881. Bolton played throughout the North and West Ridings, eventually settling in Wharfedale, although he originally hailed from Gilling in Richmondshire. ^{[4] [5]}

References

1. JJohn Ogilvie, editor Charles Annandale. The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language: a complete encyclopedic lexicon, literary, scientific, and technological. Blackie & Son, 1882. Pg. 203
2. Cannon, R. D. (1971). "The Bagpipe in Northern England". Folk Music Journal. 2 (2): 127–147. Retrieved 4 January 2026.
3. Schmidt, Gary D. (April 1992). "?Vides festinare pastores: The medieval artistic vision of shepherding and the manipulation of cultural expectation in the Secunda pastorum". Neophilologus. 76 (2): 290–304. doi:10.1007/BF00210177.
4. Roberts, Paul. "Unravelling The History Of The Uilleann Pipes". j3site.lbps.net. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
5. Schofield, R A (1987). "Billy Bolton, Piper of the Dales". The Bagpipe Society. Retrieved 4 January 2026.

Further reading

• The Bagpipe in Northern England. R. D. Cannon. Folk Music Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1971), pp. 127-147