John Harrold (1872-1950)
Early in 2025 I was contacted by Julian Harrold, who had in his possession a dulcimer made by his great grandfather John James Harrold in 1894. Harrold was a cabinet maker in Sheringham, north Norfolk, for much of his life.
The dulcimer was made by Harrold when he was aged 24 and living with his parents in the Coslany district of Norwich – an area already well known to me in relation to dulcimer making, as this was where Mark Widdows had been working in earlier times.
John Harrold’s father, William, was also a cabinet maker having established himself first in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. The family moved to Norwich between 1881 and 1887, just as John would be of an age to become an apprentice. After the death of his father he continued to live in Coslany, with his widowed mother, until he moved to Sheringham soon after his marriage in 1905. Apart from a period between 1910 and 1921 when he lived in Cromer, he lived in Sheringham for the rest of his life, dying in 1950 aged 78. His son John Alfred also followed in the family trade.
Julian’s mother says that John Harrold that he used to play around the pubs and that he had known a chap called Jack Basham: Basham moved to Sheringham about the same time as Harrold, and was also a cabinet maker who made a dulcimer, which is now in Sheringham Museum.
John Harrold’s dulcimer
The dulcimer has five strings to a course over 21 bridges, of which the lowest treble one is missing. It has been restored with the treble bridges placed in a straight line. It has simple gilt decoration but quite complex marquetry top and bottom and a shield-shaped plaque bearing the maker’s name (J. Harrold) and the year 1894.
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