Pinbarrel Hall · Buxton · presents
Wind-up music boxes pinned, tuned and painted in a Derbyshire loft — carousels, keepsakes and tunes of your own choosing.
From £19 · UK delivery £4.95 · every box posted in a printed playbill
Now playing
or your own air, pinned to order
Scene II
Pinbarrel Hall · Hall Bank Mews · Buxton
For the whole season · a box wound every evening
Doors open Saturdays at eleven · boxes from £19 · your own tune pinned for £85
Restored this season
An 1890s Cottage Chest playing six airs from one cylinder. Sold out at £1,180 — the next restored chest is due 6 February.
Pinned & tuned in Buxton
Scene III
Seven of the company, standing on the boards tonight. Each one plays a single air and runs about three minutes on a full wind.
Scene IV · the change
Ezra builds every case as a theatre in miniature: limewood or walnut, a gilt moulding round the lid and a painted scene inside it.
About 40 hours a case · lids painted in casein and gold leaf
A spring barrel turns the cylinder, a governor and fly fan hold the tempo, and steel pins pluck a comb Odile has tuned tooth by tooth.
Up to 3,400 pins · combs tuned to A = 440 Hz
Every movement leaves with a brass heart key. Eight turns gives about three minutes of tune — stop at the first resistance and it will outlive you.
Two-year free re-tune · spare keys £6
Act I · the house — the stage every lid is painted after
Scene V
Choose an air, a case and a comb in the picker and the song strip punches itself, one hole for every note the comb will pluck. Odile pins the cylinder from that very strip.
3,200 pins on a 36-note cylinder
№ 4 · Ode to Joy · L. van Beethoven · 30 notes · 18-note comb
Flat 7 · the bench, Tuesday afternoon
Scene VI · backstage
Stage door
Ring twice · mind the scenery
★★★★★
“The Pewter Grand plays Clair de Lune so softly the whole room goes quiet.”
★★★★★
“They repinned my grandmother’s box with her wedding waltz. I cried in the post office queue.”
★★★★★
“I fitted the Heart-Key Movement into my own box. It came with a tuning note in Odile’s handwriting.”
“The ballerina box came wrapped in a real playbill. My daughter wound it eleven times before breakfast.”
Harriet O., Leek · Row A · Seat 2
Scene VII · the box office
4.9out of 5 from 612 notices since 2019
★★★★★
“Ordered the Lantern Carousel on a Tuesday; it was singing on our mantelpiece by Friday.”
★★★★★
“The tiny Matchbox Carousel has huge charm. I bought four for the cousins.”
★★★★★
“The Gilded Carousel is the most beautiful thing in our house, and the loudest at Christmas.”
Scene VIII · the interval
Questions from the stalls, answered by the company
About three weeks: a week to arrange your tune for the comb, a week to pin the cylinder and a few days to tune and play it in. We send you a recording before it posts.
The number of teeth on the comb. Eighteen carries a clear melody, thirty adds harmony, and thirty-six gives a bass line and full chords — the Gilded Carousel sounds like a tiny orchestra.
UK tracked delivery is £4.95 and free over £150, in 2–3 working days. Europe is £14 and takes 5–8 days. Every box is posted in a padded case wrapped in a printed playbill.
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Stock boxes can be returned within 30 days, unwound and in their case, for a full refund. Cylinders pinned to your own tune cannot come back unless something is wrong with them.
Let it play down before you store it, keep it away from radiators and sunny sills, and never force the key past the first resistance. Re-tuning is free for two years.
Yes. Comb repairs, re-pinning and governor services start at £85. Post it to us or bring it up on a Saturday and we will quote once we have heard it play.
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