A popular aspect of our work is the tool sales we present at the violin making colleges.
We sell donated tools and materials to students at prices they can afford; proceeds from these sales in colleges help fund our student awards.
We welcome donations of second-hand tools, wood, accessories and books. Collection can usually be arranged if required. Please contact us if you can help in this way.
Recent donations include:
- Tools and wood from the workshop of Peter Croll
- Tools and wood from the workshop of Eric Mawbey
- The complete contents of the workshop of Jeremy Ard
- Tools and wood from the workshop of Andy Holliman
- Tools from Andrew Fairfax, Alison Yates, John Mather, Michael Hill, Vanda Morton & Susie Mackenzie
- Tools and materials from Keith Adams
- Tools, wood and books from the family of the late Koen Padding
- A part-made cello, tools and materials from the family of the late Brian Laurence
- A part-made cello and materials from the family of the late Arnold Boyes
- The complete contents of the workshop of Bernard Wawman
- The complete contents of the workshop of Jim Read
- An unvarnished cello by Maurice Bouette, donated by his family
- Tools and wood from the workshop of Clarence Myerscough
- Tools and wood from the workshop of Colin Wills
- Tools and wood from the workshop of Peter Boardman
You can read some of the stories below from the donors and their families.
About Peter Argo Croll
Peter Argo Croll was born 8th December 1941 at home in the village of Puckeridge, Hertfordshire to Gertrude and Frank Croll.
He spent his whole happy childhood living there with his elder brother John.
They both had a passion for bluegrass music, and his teens Peter bought a banjo which he learned to play listening to Peggy and Pete Seeger records. He spent hours practicing in the open fields behind his home. He would eventually go on to play in folk bands across Hertfordshire and London.
The first musical instrument Peter ever made was an Appalachian dulcimer, which he played on his knees. He once performed Amazing Grace on it at a concert in the Fortune Theatre in London. Apparently it was so sad and beautiful it brought the house down!
In 1976 Peter started a violin making course at Newark School of Violin Making. He was extremely talented and his work was precise and beautiful. His real passion however was for varnish. He worked tirelessly for the rest of his life searching for, researching and experimenting the best pigments and colours to finish his violins with. He had an enormous collection of samples and documentation; there are plans to write an article about his research.
Peter travelled around the country in his camper van, which he lived in, playing his violin with various Irish folk bands in pubs and clubs.
Around 2004 Peter started renting a workshop in the pretty, small town of Llanidloes, Powys. It was crammed full of his handmade tools and wood, much of which has been donated to the Rowan Armour-Brown Trust.
It was in his workshop, surrounded by his life’s work and memories from his extensive travels around the world, that he drew his last breath aged 82 on 25th May 2024.
About Eric Mawbey, written by Amanda Davis, his daughter
‘ My father came to instrument making later in life, after he had taken early retirement from his career in education. In doing so he fulfilled a lifetime’s dream of learning to make the instruments he had so loved playing all his adult life (he was a viola player). He threw himself into this new voyage of discovery with energy and enthusiasm, researching every aspect of the craft, travelling to Germany to buy wood, building and equipping a comfortable workshop in which he spent every minute which he could. He even experimented with varnish making, sometimes with near disastrous consequences (on one alarming occasion there was a small explosion on the driveway and the car narrowly escaped conflagration) He greatly enjoyed travelling to Cambridge and Newark several times a year for courses, making many friends along the way and relishing the expert tuition from Rowan Armour-Brown and others. He made more than forty instruments over the next three decades, some of which are being played in professional orchestras in the UK and overseas. One viola has even travelled around the world on a cruise ship, being played nightly in the resident quartet!
My father only stopped making instruments in his mid-eighties when he became carer in chief for my mother, He continued to play his viola in local orchestras until he turned ninety. He departed this life having fulfilled his dream and leaving his beautiful instruments as an enduring legacy. It was his great wish that future generations of makers should benefit from his tools and books. All of his family approve wholeheartedly of his decision to donate them.’
Comments from our Award winners on the receipt of tools from our donors
…the tools that I purchased from RAB Trust marked the name of the donor. I did not know the donor personally. However, it made me feel grateful and emotional for their genuine kindness. It will remind me of the legacy of helping others while I make my instruments in my lifetime with those tools, and perhaps my tools will be pass on to the next generation of bowed instrument makers. It makes me feel happy to think in this way. Eunjoo Lee, 2020