TWO craftsmen are hoping the launch of a business venture in the North-East will hit all the right notes.

There has never been any discord between cousins Chris Manship, 34, and 43-year-old Sean Galvin. And demonstrating that they are still in harmony the duo have just set up shop together as violin makers, on Teesside.

It all started with father-oftwo Chris embarking on a four-year course to learn how to make violins.

He was joined on the course by fellow cabinet maker, Sean.

Both have played the violin since they were children.

Chris said: “I have always been interested in making things.

“I was interested in how a violin was put together and the sound it created.

“It is the attraction of making something new, of using skills that have been around for hundreds of years and making something which is going to go through many players’ hands.”

Sean, who is from Stokesley, North Yorkshire, said: “I have loved the violin since I was about 11 years old.

“I just had the idea of making one, when I heard about this course.”

It was while Chris was taking daughters Phoebe, eight, and Megan, five, on a visit to Preston Hall Museum, Stockton, that he noticed an empty shop in the museum’s Victorian theme period street.

He made inquiries and this month, the shop became the cousins’ base, where they are not only making new violins, violas and cellos, but carrying out restoration work and bow repairs.

The backs, sides and necks of all the violins they make are made from sycamore, the front pieces from spruce.

Chris, who lives at Moorsholm, near Whitby, said: “We just want to make a living while doing something we enjoy and at the same time keep an old craft alive.’’