Ray
vividly remembers the day he first heard bagpipes - other than the ubiquitous
Great Highland Bagpipes. It was in 1964 as an 11 year old at school in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
when his Art Teacher emerged from the store room strapped-in to an instrument
driven by a flapping arm attached to bellows, that instrument was the Northumbrian
Smallpipe. He remembers being absolutely smitten by the sound of the pipes
at a time when the Beatles and Rolling Stones were the preferred sound of
his generation, little did he know that 16 years later history would repeat
itself when he himself became an Art Teacher and later a Piper/Pipemaker. That
experience as a young boy never left him but it was not until as a young
man of 24 that he was financially able to achieve his dream and buy a set
of pipes - thanks to a tax rebate !
It was as a maker of Northumbrian Smallpipes that Ray first established himself as a Pipemaker building his first set in 1981. He went on to send pipes to many International destinations, but it was sumultaneous with developing his Northumbrian Smallpipes that he also continued to develop his Scottish Smallpipes and later the Lowland Pipes and Northumberland Half-Long Pipes.
Having established himself as a maker sending pipes to many national and international destinations he gave up Teaching to pursue his passion in piping/pipemaking and became a full-time professional Pipemaker in 1988. Never one for sitting on his laurels to this day he continues to develop his style and design in pursuit of 'perfection' and so no two sets are the same.
The importance of his experience and training in Art & Design cannot be underestimated when it comes to making Pipes as visual skills and attention to detail and design are applied to every aspect of his work. Ray likes to feel that his pipes and their design are uniquely his own and he approaches each set of pipes as completely individual and different in some small way to the previous, which means that you as a client will receive a set of Pipes hand-made for you personally.