02-04-2026
The story of a harp.
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Our ‘last Tuesday of the month social’ was a bit of a surprise! An arranged speaker couldn’t make it and one of members (Jon) surprised us all by demonstrating the results of his unusual hobby. He restores very old musical instruments and in particular harps.
A restoration takes not just days or weeks but months of effort so it was really nice that he trusted us to touch his latest restoration, he named it ‘Lizzie’, after her original owner and is celebrating her 212 year life. He told us of it's history and revealed some of the intricate mechanics that are hidden within her structure. What is of course hard to believe, is that like many very old items from history, the craftsmanship involved. No electricity, no power tools, only pure skill and time taken with basic tools. The screws involved were all made by hand, standards hadn't been invited at that time, no BA, no Whitworth, no BSF and certainly no metric. So in some ways, in comparison to the original craftsmen the restoration was a walkover. Other Shed members got involved with the task of replicating some of the more esoteric parts although he cheated, so he said, with the special screws and replaced them where needed with modern ones.
Jon doesn’t play but manages to traditionally string and tune his harps. He loves to restore them to concert standard, where in fact many end up being played by their skilful new owners.
He just wants to prolong their lives and their history for another hundred years – or two, through his other hobby of genealogy.
Thank you Jon for a fascinating presentation, delivered perfectly at a moment’s notice. We were all spellbound and excited to ask questions afterwards too.
If you would like to see more of his handiwork and craftsmanship you could head over to his web page. Even if you don't want a harp revived, it's a fascinating browse.
And after the talk I couldn't help but remember this song from way back when
Author Cliff Jones
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