The Piano History Centre supplies displays and lectures to W.I. groups, Museums, Schools, Colleges, etc..

In 2007, we were offered a large museum space in a wonderful Georgian setting, but it proved to be impractical for access and escape, so we are setting up a more modest Piano History Centre in Sefton Lane, although we could fill ten times the space with piano history.

We have added to our collection of antique pianos, which provide window dressing for the main collection - information and paperwork. We are making progress with the long task of selecting from over 12,000 images, and preparing 200 feet of display boards to cover the upper halves of the walls, to form a time-line of piano history, while the lower halves are almost filled by antique pianos, and a section for music projects.

At first, this will be a private collection, then we have to see what the local council will allow us to do here with the public. After all that comes the task of trying to bring the pianos up to playing order, and recording them.

The sore point at the moment is that we have unacceptable levels of electrical interference, and are awaiting the results of OFCOM's tests on the Arquiva radio mast across the road.

Funding is a problem in any situation where one wants to be employed by a project, as this is viewed as personal gain! We would be pleased to hear from anyone who can direct us to funding to extend and improve our facilities.





We have no full-time staff to answer enquiries on 01493 658732, and it is not usually possible to deal with history enquiries instantly, so email is the best method of contact. We sometimes deal with over a thousand emails per week, so please do not expect us to go onto your site to set things up! If you want help, it is up to you to see that your system is set up to allow emails from or our replies to you will be lost.

If you are not on the internet, you can write to us...
Beth & Bill Kibby-Johnson
Piano History Centre
271 Southtown Road
Great Yarmouth NR31 0JB
(UK)

WANTED: Any kind of paperwork or information about pianos, such as ads, articles, books, booklets, catalogues, diagrams, directory listings, ephemera, exhibition catalogues, guarantees, handbooks, letterheads, music with piano ads on it, newspaper ads, pamphlets, photos, pictures, posters, pricelists, receipts, record sleeves, trade cards, warranties, etc..