Thomas Todd (piper)

Thomas Todd (c.1832 - 1908) was a noted player of the Northumbrian smallpipes, considered by William Cocks to be 'of highest rank'. One account, from 1890, states that he learned the pipes from Thomas Hair, a blind piper and fiddler of Bedlington, who also taught Todd's contemporary, Old Tom Clough. A photograph of him is in the Cocks Collection, and is visible at [2] It is known that Todd taught the pipers Tom Clough and Richard Mowat to play, as well as Mary Anderson, known as 'Piper Mary'.W. A. Cocks later noted that she was herself 'well known in her day as a piper of the first order'.

Todd can be tracked throughout his life through census records. He seems to be the same as the Thomas Todd who appears in 1841 in Longframlington, apparently aged 7; later census appearances are largely consistent with this, but with his being born in 1832, and there is a record of a Thomas Todd being baptised in Longframlington in 1832; later appearances show that he was a miner, living in pit villages in the Bedlington area, first Nedderton (sometimes called Netherton), later Bedlington itself, then Choppington Station, Northumberland. A vivid contemporary picture of the Choppington area is found at [3].

William Cocks noted that he was a favourite piper of Dr J. Collingwood Bruce, one of the editors of The Northumbrian Minstrelsy, and that he played at Bruce’s lectures, for instance in 1888. He also played at the Crystal Palace, in London, and, late in his life, at the Riding of the Bounds, in Morpeth, in 1889; a photograph, one taken on this occasion, are in the Cocks Collection, and may be viewed at the Woodhorn archive website,.

He lived in or near Choppington for most of his adult life, but a few months before his death, he moved to live with his son-in-law at Bedlington. He died in July 1908 aged about 76, and is buried at Choppington. His obituary said that around 1880 "he was undoubtedly one of the ablest players of the Northumberland Smallpipes alive ..... His execution was remarkable, but he excelled more in the quality and sweetness with which he embellished the old and now nearly forgotten Northumbrian and Scottish airs". It also states that 'considerably over 50 years ago', he was host of the Shakespeare Tavern in Guide Post, Choppington, where he was certainly living in 1862. As the tavern was sold by auction in March 1860, and again had a different landlord by 1867, it seems he did not make a success of the business. The article continues that "many came long distances to hear him play", and "he played all over Northumberland and in many parts of Durham". One story told by Todd, and recorded in the obituary, and by Cocks, tells that 'Todd once was to play a concert at Allendale and lost his way on the fells. He played his pipes “for company”, was heard by a shepherd and rescued.'

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