Harry Punt (1856-1944)
George Henry (Harry) Punt was born in Fersfield near Diss in south Norfolk in 1856 and died in 1944.
His dulcimer passed down to his granddaughter Connie Hannant and she and her son Ivan brought it along to a dulcimer event organised by John and Katie Howson (under the auspices of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust) in 2005.
Harry was born into a family of tradesmen, both his father (George) and his grandfather worked as blacksmiths in and around Diss. In the early 1880s Harry was running the family farm, then in 1885 he moved a few miles away to a small hamlet outside Pulham Market, where he ran the Duck’s Foot beerhouse and its adjoining blacksmith’s shop.
This enterprise didn’t seem to go too well for him, as by 1891 he had taken a job as a farm labourer, which he continued to do for the rest of his life, and in 1939 he was described as a retired horseman.
Connie Hannant recalled that her grandfather liked his beer and used to play the dulcimer in pubs. She was born in 1914, and remembered him playing when she was a little girl.
Harry Punt died in 1944 and his obituary in the Diss Express described him as a “very jovial character”.
There are no known recordings of Harry Punt.
Harry Punt’s dulcimer
More photos and information about Harry Punt’s dulcimer
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