Ernest Parnell (1892-1972)
In 2016 we met Lindsay Faulkner, a grandson of Ernest Parnell who remembered his grandfather playing it whilst sitting cross-legged on the floor with the dulcimer on his knees. This unusual playing position is perhaps explained by the fact that Ernest James Parnell was a master tailor, born in 1892. He grew up in the north Suffolk town of Beccles, the son of William Gray Parnell and Lucy (nee Bircham) who had moved there from Bungay, where they were employed in the printing trade. Ernest’s father continued in this trade in Beccles and in the early 1900s they lived in Newgate Street just down the road from Caxton’s Printers, which is likely to have been where he was employed.
In 1919 Ernest, married Louisa Turner and they started their married life living with her parents, also on Newgate Street. By 1939, they were living at 12 Gosford Road, Beccles and in retirement they moved to Heacham near King’s Lynn. In his working life, Ernest worked from home, in later life using a treadle sewing machine.
His grandson (son of Ernest and Louisa’s daughter Hilda) recalled that he played in the house and that his repertoire consisted mainly of hymns and wartime songs on the dulcimer and also on the mouthorgan.
N.B. His grandson told me that Ernest spelled his name with only one L (“Parnel”) but he appears with the standard spelling in all the documentation.
Ernest Parnell’s dulcimer
Ernest Parnell’s dulcimer is in good condition apart from a split across the soundboard, but it seems to be in a stable condition and is fully strung with 5 strings per course over 20 bridges, with treble bridges 5 and 6 being in the classic East Anglian offset position. There are four soundholes with the standard gilt decoration around them. It has an integral metal handle, four wooden feet but no stand, which he didn’t need as he played it on his lap, sitting cross-legged on the floor. In 2016 the dulcimer was still in family ownership, although not being played. His grandson had the original canes, and a case which Ernest had made himself.
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