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Nell's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
Nell's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
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Hand-tuned one at a time in Staveley, Cumbria
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Nell's Hand-Tuned Rain Drum
Hand-Tuned in a Cumbrian Forge
Eleanor “Nell” Ashcroft, 64. Blacksmith above the River Kent, near Staveley, since 1991. For the last ten years she has made nothing but rain drums. This is the final batch she will tune by hand.
“I don’t play them. I set them out in the garden and wait for the rain to play them.”
— Nell Ashcroft, Staveley, Cumbria
What’s in the Box
Everything That Leaves the Forge With It
The Drum
One 4-inch carbon steel rain drum, hand-tuned to A=432Hz.
Two Mallets
Wooden handles, rubber tips. Or play it with your fingertips.
Beginner Songbook
Number notation. Anyone can play from the first evening.
Cloth Pouch + Note
One handwritten sentence from Nell, folded inside.
Why This Drum
Six Things a Machine-Tuned Drum Cannot Give You
Every detail below comes out of thirty-five years at an anvil and ten years of filing tongues one at a time. Nothing here is decoration.
The Pentatonic Promise
Nine notes, all in pentatonic scale. Every note harmonises with every other note on the drum, so there is no wrong note — whether it is your fingers or the rain doing the playing.
The 432Hz Calibration
Tuned to A=432Hz rather than the standard A=440Hz. Eight cycles softer. Across an open garden it carries more gently than concert pitch.
Weather-Hardened Steel
Powder-coated carbon steel, sealed against rust and UV. Built to stay outdoors all year. Nell’s own drum has had ten Cumbrian winters on the same tree stump.
The Kentmere Anchor
Every drum gets its final check against a small grey river stone Nell lifted out of the Kent in 2021. It rings a quarter-tone between F and F sharp. No two river stones ring the same.
The Four-Inch Size
Ten centimetres across. It sits on a wall top, a bench arm, a balcony rail, a garden table — and still fits in a coat pocket or a rucksack when you want it with you.
The Folded Note
Each drum leaves the forge with a handwritten note from Nell in the cloth pouch. Not a marketing card — one sentence, chosen for that drum, on that day.
— Expert Note
“A genuinely hand-tuned steel tongue drum is rare outside the small luthier community. Most drums on the market are machine-stamped and machine-tuned, which is why they can sound brittle even played quietly. Tuning each instrument by ear against one fixed reference, one at a time, is how these drums were originally built in the early 2000s. And the pentatonic layout means anyone can pick one up without a single lesson — that part is not marketing, it is simply the maths of the scale.”
Dr Rhian Locke — Senior Lecturer in Music Education, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
Where It Lives
Perfect For
Quality Promise
Five Things You Get With Every Drum
30-Day Returns
If it doesn’t feel right when it arrives, send it back within 30 days for a full refund. No questions, no forms, no return postage to pay. One email to our team and it is sorted.
A Note From the Forge
Nell tunes every drum by hand and writes a one-sentence note for each one. Small variations in pitch and in the pearl-flecked surface are part of how each drum finds its own voice. They are not faults — they are the maker’s hand. The river stone in her apron pocket settles the rest.
The Details
Product Specifications
| Material | Carbon steel |
| Finish | Pearl-flecked powder coating — six colours |
| Dimensions | 10 cm × 10 cm (4″ × 4″) — XXL available |
| Notes | 9 tongues, pentatonic scale, A=432Hz |
| Set Includes | Drum, 2 mallets, beginner songbook, cloth pouch, handwritten note |
| Play Method | Mallets, fingertips — or leave it out and let the rain play it |
| Outdoor Use | Built to stay outside all year, sealed against rust and UV |
| Care | Wipe with a soft dry cloth. Do not submerge. |
| Origin | Hand-tuned near Staveley, Cumbria — final batch of 290 |
| Maker | Eleanor “Nell” Ashcroft, blacksmith and metal artist since 1991 |
| Sound Check | Final tuning verified against a River Kent stone from Nell’s apron pocket |
Why This Is the Last Batch
Why This Is the Last Batch
A note from the forge above the River Kent:
Nell Ashcroft has worked steel in a stone outbuilding at the end of a barn half a mile up the lane from Staveley, Cumbria, since 1991 — field gates first, then weather vanes, boot scrapers, garden sculpture and the odd copper birdbath. In August 2015 a commission refused to work: a flat steel disc with five cut tongues, ordered as a wind catcher for a garden gate down in Kendal. She set it on a mossy tree stump behind the forge to think about it and clean forgot it was there. Two months later, in the middle of an October downpour, it was singing — a clear, pitched note for every drop that landed on a tongue. By 2017 the forge made nothing else.
By the spring of 2025 the fine work was no longer steady. The millimetre filing along the edge of a tongue. The half-turn of the tuning hammer that takes a note from sharp to right. Some mornings her hands could still do it. Most mornings they couldn’t. She can still forge a gate. She can’t file a tongue to pitch, and that is the whole job.
So this is the last batch she’ll tune herself. 290 drums, one at a time. After these, the tuning hammer goes down.
Size, Care and Returns
Size, Care and Returns
What you get
- One hand-tuned steel tongue drum, 10 cm × 10 cm, nine tongues, pentatonic, tuned by ear to A=432Hz
- Two mallets with rubber tips, a beginner songbook with number notation, a cotton drawstring pouch
- A handwritten note from Nell, one sentence, chosen for that drum on that day
- Six colours; an XXL Premium size is also available
Living outside
- Powder-coated carbon steel, sealed against rust and UV
- Built to stay out all year. Nell’s own has been on the same stump for ten Cumbrian winters, and most owners never bother bringing theirs in
- Wipe it with a soft dry cloth. Don’t submerge it
Returns
- 30 days, full refund, no questions and no forms — and we cover the postage
- One email to info@cedarandtinco.com and it’s sorted
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Email info@cedarandtinco.com, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm GMT. We answer within one working day. Nell doesn’t own a smartphone — her nephew’s wife set the shop up and handles every question and every order herself.
Can I send it back if it isn’t for me?
Can I send it back if it isn’t for me?
30 days, full refund, no questions and no forms. One email and we sort the return out — and we cover the postage.
How is it made?
How is it made?
Powder-coated carbon steel, cut and tuned by hand in a stone forge above the River Kent, half a mile up the lane from Staveley in Cumbria. Nine tongues, pentatonic, tuned by ear to A=432Hz. Every drum gets a final check against a small grey river stone Nell picked out of the Kent at Kentmere in 2021 and keeps in her apron pocket. Final batch: 290.