Seven are of a type known as ‘Stafford’, one is of the type ‘Gloucester’ while the others are unclassifiable at the moment. It’s not that they were made at these places, but these names have been allocated to differentiate the many types that have been found in the UK and Europe, some twenty-one in all.

One of the curious things about these finds is that all but two of the ‘Stafford ’ type are only found in England and Wales, which implies either a manufactory somewhere on these islands or a special type made abroad for UK consumption.

Centres of manufacture ...

In fact one of the great mysteries is where, or if, they could have been made in the UK prior to the Industrial Revolution, when Dudley, Rowley Regis and Birmingham were the Jew’s harp centre of world export. We know there was a village of makers in Ayrshire in the 17th century, but little is known about what or how they produced them and there are no finds from the area, all very curious.

... and supplies today ...

What we have with those finds, of course, are broken musical instruments. All but one of those given to me are small copper alloy casts. The only iron one is rapidly disintegrating, something that might point to why there are relatively few finds throughout the UK.

Today we can buy cheap instruments from music shops with frames made from thin rod or more sophisticated, substantial (and expensive) ones via the web.

So I ask myself given the manufacturing process of today, where more expensive quality instruments available along with the vast majority cheap, mass-produced, iron imports, why should that not have been the case in the past? There is no evidence as yet, but given no other feasible explanation, it’s all I can think of.

So, for anyone wandering the countryside at night, remember to keep even a cheap music shop Jew’s harp with you at all times. Even if you don’t believe that evil will strike, at least you might learn to play it and buy a better quality one for performances, and I for one would encourage and welcome that. Michael Wright