Billy Bennington’s dulcimer
Billy’s dulcimer originally had 22 bridges but after a motorcycle accident it was cut down to 20 bridges. Billy bought the dulcimer played here in 1922 from a ‘professional’ player called John Rose (1847-1931) who played in the Pigeon pub (now long gone) in St. Benedicts, Norwich. Rose was actually a shoemaker by trade, but reckoned he kept his wife and four children on the proceeds of his busking. The instrument had been played by Rose’s father before him (Francis Rose, born 1810), whom Billy believed had been a sailor and so thought he may have bought the dulcimer abroad. Francis was a shoemaker in Norwich for most of his life, although he did have a spell in Deptford in the 1840s, but this instrument is a classic example of an East Anglian dulcimer although it is not decorated in black and gold.
It is tuned in what Billy called the Norfolk tuning, which he got from Frederick Cooper (Billy Cooper’s father, from Hingham). This allows all the sharp keys to be played. He also added a thick bass string (from a piano) to his dulcimer which gave a deep drone note on some tunes. The idea for this could have come from Herbert Sadd’s dulcimer which was made by Mark Widdows and included a bass string.
Dimensions of Billy Bennington’s dulcimer
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