Whilst walking through the village of Ridlington in Rutland in March 2024 I had a look around the Church of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Andrew.
Interestingly there is a display of old musical instruments at the west end of the nave that were played in the church when it had a West Gallery. In this church the gallery was not kept when renovations were carried out during the 1860s. It is reasonable to assume the instruments were in use until that date.
The set of instruments belonged to John Thomas Scott who was born in 1870 in Ayston a neighbouring village. He donated them to the church in 1923. There are four clarinets in different keys, a flute, a bassoon (dating from 1795) and a violin. The bassoon looks to be quite special as it has a trumpet end.
These along with other preserved Church Band instruments are recorded in the West Gallery Churches web site http://www.westgallerychurches.com/index.html
A watercolour painting of the collection was made in 1943 by the English artist and writer Barbara Jones for the "Recording Britain”. This was a collection of topographical watercolours and drawings made in the early 1940s during the Second World War. After the war, the whole collection of recording English market towns and villages, churches and country estates, rural landscapes and industries, rivers and wild places, monuments and ruins. was given to the V&A.
Some interesting questions remain:
Why adapt the bassoon with a bell end like a trumpet?
How and why did Mr. Scott of Ayston have these in his possession in the 1920s?
Who was the maker of the wind instruments and the violin?
Steve Welton