Accordion

If there was a musical community event in Northampton any time during the 1950s to 1980s you could put your money on Bet Mitchell being involved. This community-minded musician put her musical talents to many a fundraiser, church service and party. While best known as a keyboard player, she’d also pump out a rollicking tune on this accordion, its enormous form dwarfing her short stature, and her signature smile shining out from behind its bellows. Mitchell had come to the region as a teenager to work with her family at Galena lead mine. Here, at this remote outpost, she met local man Neil Brearley whom she later married. Together they had five children, most of whom remain in the region today.