CHESHIRE’S hidden musical heritage is being revealed in a week celebrating one of the country’s little-known instruments.

English bagpipes are thought to have been the most popular musical instrument in the country in the Middle Ages, with Cheshire becoming the by-word for fashionable tunes by the 1700s.

Tom Hughes, education officer for Weaver Hall Museum and a self-confessed bagpipe enthusiast, said: “It was the most popular instrument in England from 1300 to 1700 but people just think it’s a Scottish instrument.

“It’s a big part of our heritage but something we’ve lost.

“It’s a sound you definitely would have heard in Northwich in medieval times.”

Tom explained that bagpipes were brought back from the Middle East and North Africa by pilgrims or Crusaders.

Varieties of the instrument were soon being used for dances, processions and entertainment across England.

King Henry VIII himself owned five sets of pipes, one set being made entirely out of ivory.

Tom said: “It wouldn’t have sounded good but it would have looked great.”

Although the nobility owned collections of musical instuments it would have been down to the lower classes to play them, and minstels and musicians travelled the country, playing their own instruments and those owned in each hall they stayed in.

Cheshire became the hub of the musical community in 1204 when all minstels had to attend Chester every midsummer to renew their licence.

Tom said that the origins of this annual event make for an entertaining tale.

He said: “The Earl of Chester was besieged in his castle in North Wales and sent for his soldiers but, because it was midsummer they were all drunk.

“So all the minstrels went into Wales and as they were approaching they made such noise that the Welsh thought it was a massive army and ran off.

“As a result the earl said in gratitude he would give them his protection as long as they turned up at his church on every anniversary to get their licence.

“This lasted from 1204 to 1756.”

By the 18th century Cheshire was so central to the musical world that fashionable melodies in London were known as ‘Cheshire tunes’.

English bagpipes were so ingrained in the culture that pipers were depicted heavily in church carvings and manuscript illustrations – carvings of pipers appeared in Cheshire 200 years before the earliest mention of bagpipes in Scotland.

Intriguingly, the pipers are often picutred as pigs, apes or, chillingly, skeletons.

Now there are only about 30 types of bagpipe in Europe with only about a dozen being played regularly in England.

“The appeal of bagpipes is that you can play for dances for hours and not get tired because the bag is doing the work,” Tom said.

“The sound of them is something so unfamiliar to us now that it evokes the past – I really like the sound of the instrument.”

INTERNATIONAL Bagpipe Day falls on Saturday, March 10.

Weaver Hall Museum, which teaches historic music in its schools workshops, is supporting the project this year.

On Monday, Tom visited Great Budworth CE Primary School and St Mary’s Church, where there is a carving of an ape piper, to show pupils his collection of English bagpipes, teach them some dances and tell stories of famous Cheshire pipers.

He is also giving a presentation on the subject, complete with performances, folklore and history, which is open to everyone tomorrow, Thursday.

The talk will be held at Weaver Hall Museum, in London Road, at 7.30pm.

On Saturday there will be a variety of workshops across the county, culminating in a concert in Chester in the evening.