Brass Band Links.

There is a list of links to Brass Bands at the bottom of this page.

A pre-history of Brass Bands:

It is simple and convinient to say that the bras band movement can trace its beginnings back to somewhere within the first quarter of the nineteenth century; it is quite impossible to say which is the 'oldest', or which was the first, brass band. It is, however, woth looking into the liust of candidates, for the light that such a study throws on the way in which the brass band movement began. It may also help to fuel some of those argumrnts that you may have with fellow bandsmen.

For years, Besses o'th' Barn Band were considered the oldest group with a continuous exsistence up to and including the present day. For the uninitiated, I should explain that, 'Besses', as they are generally known, come from a small village which is now swallowed up all but in name by the continuous urban developement which is today joins Manchester and Buey. Besses have an invaluable and fairly easily accesible piece of evidence to back up their claim - a long eulogy of the band's achievements, written by Joseph Hampson and published in the ealry 1890's. His information on the band's information was obtained by questioning one or two of the older members of the band who, as he put it, 'grim death with his scythe.....has pleased to pass by'. They told him that the band had begun as a string band 'over a hundred years back' (ie 1790's), then had transformed itself into a reed band 'somewhere about the yer 1818'. Old men being old men, they apparently disagreed among themselves about the exact dates or, indeed whether there had been a string band at all, but they all seemed fairly sure that the founders were John, James and Joeseph Clegg, cotton manufacturers of the Bess o'th' Barn and that, besides playing themselves, the three brothers provided the funds for instruments, uniforms and music, although the first recorded list of members includes only one of the Clegg's, while one Thomas Leigh is styled as 'Leader and Bandmaster':

Thomas Leigh - F and C Clarinet
James Blomery - C Clarinet
Thomas Morris - C Clarinet
John Eastwood - Piccolo
John Clegg - Keyed Bugle
Wright Fletcher - Trumpet
Joseh Ogden - French Horn
Andrew Hilton - French Horn
John Fletcher - Trombone
John Ogden - Bass Horn
Thomas Ogden Bass Horn
Thomas Peatfield - Bass Drum

# I would imagine the Bandmaster had a tought time of it with that many Thomas' and Johns in the band!!!

Nothing much seems to have happened to te band until July 1821, when they were hired to play 'along with numerous other bands' in a local procession to celebrate the coronation of George IV.
To quote Hampson's account: 'Mr William Johnson, a very prominent leader of bands at the that time, in order to while away the during the marshalling of the people, drew the various bands together and made a subscription to form a prize for the band that should play the best piece of music of its own selection. At the close of the contest the prize amidst of general acclaim of the general acclamation of the public, was awarded to Beses o'th' Barn, who for their test piece played "God Save the King".'

There is no indication of how the contest was judged - perhaps this first success was based on nothing more than a shrewd choice of material, and possilbly the bands unusal uniform, which consisted of white cockade hat, scarlet tunic and white trousers. However, br that as it may, by 1821, Besses' band was established, and they could claim a few years exsistence prior to that, albeit under a different name: Clegg's Reed Band.

The most deservvedly famous Brass Band of all time and the one whose name even outsiders of Brass bands recognise is the J. Foster and Son Black Dyke Mills Band. They can lay claim to a similar but, in it's very early days, less continuous, history than that of the Besses o'th' Barn band. Peter Wharton, the publican at the Old Dolphin in the village of Queenshead, had a smal brass and reed band in 1816, among whose members was a certain John Foster, who played french horn. Wharton, it is said, travelled to Manchester and bought music from the military bandmaster garrisoned there; he thus gathered a small libary which 'contained several regimental music that inspired England's heroes in several wars of the French Revolution'. Although Wharton's band was reputed to be the best in the district, it broke up and the next we hear of the formation of another group, the Queenshead village band in 1833, a band which may well have contained musicians from the previous ensemble. In 1855, the Queensgead band was apperently on its last legs, and was taken over by John Foster and Son Lmited Black Dyke Mils Band.