I have dropped by to pass on some sad news. Searching the forums here I can’t see any recent posts about Silkstone whistles or, Paul Hayward, who was the man behind Silkstone Whistles, so it is probable that this information has note reached the community here: I have only just discovered that Paul died in November last year after several years of illness. I feel very sad about this and I know some of you will share this sadness with me. I didn’t know Paul personally but he was always lovely to deal with as a whistle maker. His alloy D whistle was my first ever “high end” whistle. It is a lovely whistle and remains a favourite. When it developed a problem after 7 years of use Paul fixed it for me without charge. You don’t get service like that very often!
Sorry to hear of Paul Hayward’s passing, he was quite a whistle maker in his day, and a really nice guy too.
Many here will not be familiar with his name, because he stopped making whistles several years ago due to his illness.
I have several of his whistles in my collection, and like Mick, I have a special fondness for the alloy high D.
I even have one of the PVC low D whistles that he made a limited number of, because I continually pestered him to make a batch from PVC instead of aluminum!
Rest in peace, old friend, you will be missed.
This is sad news indeed! Paul was a truly fine gentleman to deal with. Not only did he make some great whistles for me, actually he also built for me some excellent tabor pipes, which meant a lot of trial and error to him then, as he never had made tabor pipes before. But that was Paul, as I knew him, open to new ideas, always friendly and always willing to help.
May you rest in peace, Paul, I’ll play the “Silkstone Brawl” in your memory!
May he rest in peace. He also made a lovely line of speckled green and red PVC whistles - I still have the green in C -“PH 58 C.” A talented and lovely maker.
Very sorry to hear of Paul Hayward’s passing.
I’m sitting here with PH 37 D in my hands, a luverlee, sweet sounding whistle with an impeccable maroon finish.
I once spent an exceptionally pleasant few hours at his house playing whistles and chatting about stuff. I think I played nearly every whistle he had in the house at the time.
He was a proper gent!
