John Armstrong of Carrick (1909 – 1984) was an English farmer, huntsman, stick dresser and traditional musician from near Elsdon, in central

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

. His nickname refers to High Carrick, his hill farm on the edge of the Otterburn Army ranges, near Elsdon; Armstrong is a common name in the Borders. He claimed descent from the Border reiver Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie. His wife was descended from Muckle Jock Milburn. He played

Northumbrian pipes The Northumbrian smallpipes (also known as the Northumbrian pipes) are bellows-blown bagpipes from Northeastern England, where they have been an important factor in the local musical culture for more than 250 years. The family of the Duke of ...

as a young man, and in later life the fiddle. The Armstrong family claims an unbroken tradition of Northumbrian piping going back at least four generations. The Clough family visited the Armstrong family home at Raylees for several years, just after the First World War, and John often played duets there with

Tom Clough Tom Clough (1881–1964), known as "The Prince of Pipers", was an English player of the Northumbrian pipes, or Northumbrian smallpipes. He was also a pipemaker, and the pipes he made with Fred Picknell include several important innovations, an ...

. He also later played regularly with

Billy Pigg Billy Pigg (1902 – 1968) was an English player of Northumbrian smallpipes. He was a vice-president and an influential member of the Northumbrian Pipers Society from 1930 until his death. Life and music He was born at Dilston Park, near Corbrid ...

, who wrote several tunes named for him and his family, "The Carrick Hornpipe", "Raylees", "Mary Armstrong", "Jane of Biddlestone", "Anne's Wedding" and "John of Carrick". John, with his sister Annie Snaith, and

, played regularly at events in the area, becoming known as 'The Border Minstrels'. They were joined in 1938 by Archie Dagg. They played for listening, rather than dancing. John owned a notable collection of pipe and fiddle tunes, including early manuscripts of tunes by James Hill, and autograph manuscripts by Robert Whinham. These provided 88 of the 112 tunes for the Charlton Memorial Tune Book. This book was a major extension to the published repertoire of Northumbrian pipe music, being much larger than the first edition of the Northumbrian Pipers' Society Tune Book. Unfortunately, late in his life, he lent many of his Whinham manuscripts to a friend, and they were lost. A series of accidents to his hands, resulting in a stiffening of his fingers, forced John to concentrate on the fiddle in later years. He started playing duets with Joe Hutton in 1972, adapting arrangement for two pipes to pipes and fiddle. In 1973 they won the pairs competition at Newcastleton Traditional Festival. He is featured on the Topic album ''Bonny North Tyne''. However a project for a subsequent duet album never materialised, owing to his illness and death. Some recordings of them are available on FARNE, as well as a few of Armstrong on solo fiddle. FARNE wrongly attributes some compositions to him, but there are no confirmed attributions of any compositions of his; in particular there are none in the Charlton Memorial Book, based on his own collection, where any compositions by him might be expected. However, the jig "Coquet Lights" is widely believed to be by him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, John English folk musicians 1984 deaths 1909 births 20th-century English fiddlers Players of Northumbrian smallpipes Musicians from Northumberland 20th-century British violinists