The piano used for concerts around Cresswell Fen belonged to a small committee that owned no hall. It travelled between schoolrooms, meeting rooms and the upper floor of a flour merchant's store. The instrument's schedule therefore required attention to roads, doorways and the availability of a cart before it required attention to a programme.
Two removable rails were made for moving it across thresholds. These fitted into a timber cradle on the cart, keeping the weight away from the instrument's small castors. The cradle looked more like equipment for moving a stove than anything a concert audience would expect to associate with an evening of songs.
Tuner Abram Senn advised that the piano should arrive well before a performance. Rooms were heated differently, journeys shook the case and a hurried arrival left too little time to discover what had shifted. The committee began charging less for neighbouring venues that could accommodate two successive evenings without another move.
This modest change affected the repertoire. A singer might appear in two rooms on consecutive nights, while the same accompanist remained with the instrument. Programmes could share rehearsed pieces without becoming identical. The piano's physical convenience helped create a circuit that a printed list of performers does not fully reveal.
Eventually, one hall acquired an instrument of its own. The travelling piano made fewer journeys, but its cradle remained in use for years. It is a reminder that local musical life rested on more than a supply of willing performers. Somebody also needed to know how to get a heavy upright through a narrow door.