Richard in demand after adding another string to his bow

Richard Wilson in his workshop. Picture by Canon Alan Hughes.

Richard and Elisabeth Wilson live on the outskirts of Berwick – Elisabeth formerly a violinist with The Royal Northern Sinfonia and Richard a violist who studied in London and Vienna, and performed with chamber and concert orchestras in London and France.

When living in Cambridgeshire, he became fascinated by the intricate and ancient craft of musical bow making and asked a bowmaker at Bury St Edmunds to teach him.

Richard decided to become a full-time maker of bows for string instruments and the couple moved north. His clientele has now developed to many parts of the world.

He hand crafts his pieces – cutting and fashioning the wood, making frog and adjusters on his lathe, stringing bows with horse hair and sending them all over the world in tubes by couriers.

A violin bow can comprise between 160 and 180 individual strands of horse hair.