The Story of the Tinwhistle

Robert and Sarah Clarke 1871

The first Tinwhistle was invented in the tiny village of Coney Weston, in England.

Robert Clarke, a poor farm labourer owned and played a small wooden whistle. He heard that a new material called tinplate had been invented. He asked his friend the blacksmith if he could obtain some tinplate and show him how to reproduce his wooden whistle, using this new metal product.

The new Tinwhistle played so well that Robert decided to begin a business manufacturing these instruments. He also heard that there were big opportunities for manufacture in Lancashire. Together with his son, he walked all the way from Coney Weston to Manchester, pushing his tools and materials in a handbarrow.

On the way he stopped in villages where there were markets and made the Tinwhistles. These he sold to villagers. Sometimes he met navigators, Irish labourers who were building railways and canals, and sold his Tinwhistles to them. These Irishmen took them back to Ireland, where the English Tinwhistles rapidly became Ireland's favourite folk instrument.

When Robert reached Manchester he set up his factory in a shed and soon became a successful manufacturer. Later he built two houses, a factory, and a church in New Moston, a nearby village.

By then he was a very wealthy man. All from making the instrument that everyone wanted to play.