UBIQUITOUS AMBASSADORS
KNOTTINGLEY SILVER BAND
by TERRY SPENCER B.A. (Hons), Ph D.
CHAPTER ONE
CONTENTS | PAGE ONE |
PAGE TWO
ORIGINS & EARLY HISTORY: CIRCA 1860 - 1900
“They say that Macnamara’s
Was the finest in the land
But we know a damn sight better,
It was Sammy Marshall’s band…..
…They played everywhere at Christmas
- as traditional as mince pies,
And they must have been quite special
To earn the logo ‘Silver Prize’.”
Frank Webster Chambers
‘A Memory Jog: Further Memories of Old Knottingley
Carey J. Chambers (ed), (1995)
The origin of Knottingley Band
is obscure. In 1980 the Band celebrated its conjectured centenary year, the
date being taken from an old letterhead of 1880. (1) However, a subsequent
documentary source has been located which indicates that the genesis of the
Band may lie much further in the past.
The records of the long defunct
Knottingley Brewery Co. reveal that in April 1861 the proprietor, John Carter,
made a donation to Knottingley Town Band. (2) There is clear evidence
therefore that a band was in existence early in the second half of the
nineteenth century and as the name ‘Knottingley Town’ or ‘Knottingley Brass
Band’ was commonly used prior to the adoption of the title ‘Knottingley Silver
Prize Band’ early the following century, it would suggest that the year 1880
merely marked the reorganisation of the Band which was already well
established by that date.
The roots of brass band history
are lost in time but immediate influences date from the late eighteenth
century when the growing popularity of fairs and markets increasingly became
the haunts of musicians. A simultaneous development was the growth of church
bands as small groups of parishioners banded together to provide musical
accompaniments for divine worship. The musical nucleus was forged into a
cohesive whole by the advent of the Industrial Revolution which by the early
nineteenth century as an antidote to the harsh drabness of working class life,
engendered the genesis of small bands which were to develop as an important
element of popular working class culture in many small towns and villages.
Numerous brass and reed bands were formed at that period, with many having but
a short existence. Others, however, such as Kippax village band, established
in 1814, proved more durable and thrived in the burgeoning atmosphere of
national security and patriotic pride which characterised the Victorian era.
Nominally subscription bands
were primarily of working class membership and dependant upon the financial
support of working class communities. Such bands were also of economic
necessity, open to the patronage of the local gentry. Thus, the involvement
and by extension, influence of the middle classes was a clearly discernible
element in the development of local ensembles.
The middle class squire-archy
and aspirant capitalist manufacturers, mindful of the excesses and social
consequences of the French Revolution of 1789 and fearful of the latent power
of the growing industrial proletariat in England, regarded music as a force of
good; a device by which the masses might be gentled and pacified. To this
purpose they actively supported the formation of community bands and in so
doing became the arbiters of musical taste subliminally defining a basic
repertoire of selections from operas, marches, waltzes and polkas.
Simultaneous technical and
commercial revolutions accompanied and influenced developing social trends.
From the mid nineteenth century the process of mass production assisted the
manufacture of cheaper instruments while the invention of the piston valve and
its application to musical instruments made such instruments relatively easier
to play and was therefore fundamental to the increase in the number of bands
formed as the century progressed. (3)
Such bands were frequently
associated with local inns which in addition to affording the facility for
practice in convivial surroundings also provided adequate space for the
storage of instruments. The bands were supported and encouraged by brewers and
publicans keen to promote entertainment and stimulate the sale of ale. Money
for the purchase of instruments and music stands was commonly raised by public
subscription and by loans from wealthy patrons who also often owned the
premises which served as a bandroom. (4) Thus, there is a distinct possibility
that the beginnings of Knottingley Town Band were subject to such an
arrangement and this is further reinforced by the known link with the Carter
family and with St. Botolph’s Church with which that family were so
prominently associated throughout the nineteenth century.
Of the formative years of the
Band there is little specific evidence and it is only following the
establishment of the Pontefract Advertiser late in 1863 that snippets of news
began to appear concerning the activities of the Band. A newspaper report of
November 1874, for instance, states that Knottingley Brass Band played for
dancing in Knottingley Town Hall until 11.00pm. (5) More seditiously, perhaps,
is a report the year following that the Band led George Knapton and his
supporters from Knottingley railway station to the Town Hall following
Knapton’s release from prison where he had spent a month in detention for
illegally voting in an election for the town guardians. Knapton was met at the
station by an open conveyance and was triumphantly led through the streets by
the Band. At the Town Hall, Knapton was presented with a purse containing £20
by Sidney Woolf Esq., earthenware manufacturer of Ferrybridge Pottery, one of
the successful electoral candidates in whose interest Knapton had broken the
law. (6)
The month before, the Band had
played at the opening match of Knottingley Town Cricket Club following its
relocation to Banks Garth, the occasion being marked by a match between the
married and single men of the town. (7) The event was but the first in which
the Band appeared at the Banks Garth cricket field and marked the beginning of
a mutually supportive bond between the Band and the Club throughout subsequent
decades.
As early as the last quarter of
the nineteenth century, the Band was already engaged on a well established
routine, elements of which are still discernible today. For example, in 1875
the Band paraded the streets of Knottingley on Christmas morning, playing
carols, and annual event designed to provide festive cheer and simultaneously
take advantage of the season of goodwill to replenish the coffers of the Band.
(8)
A further annual engagement was
the ‘send off’ provided by the Band on the occasion of the annual Sunday
School trip for the teachers and pupils of St. Botolph’s Church. On occasion,
the Band actually accompanied the trippers on their out of town excursions, as
in August 1885 when a convoy of eight wagonettes travelled to Womersley park
headed by the Band which played as they left Knottingley and as they entered
Womersley, and then repeated the performance on the return journey. (9)
In the winter of 1885-86 the
Band appeared in a series of entertainments given in the National Schoolroom,
promoted by the Vicar of St. Botolph’s, Rev. F.E. Egerton. (10) Again, in
1885, the Band made what was described as, “their annual church parade” on
Whit Sunday morning and shortly after noon the following day accompanied the
Sunday School pupils under the direction of Mr. Starr, walking in procession
through the town and singing hymns at the residences of principal members of
the St. Botolph’s congregation. By 4.00pm, the rounds being completed, both
Band and scholars sat down to “a well provided tea” in the schoolroom. The
procession then reformed and marched to Grange Field, the Hill Top residence
of Mrs Hannah Martha Carter, widow of the erstwhile brewery owner, where games
took place as the Ban played selections of music to “the great delight of all
present.”
Finally, after the singing of a
favourite hymn and a round of cheers by the pupils for Mrs Carter, the Vicar,
the Sunday School teachers (plus one for themselves), the Band struck up with
the National Anthem to mark the end of a very busy day. (11) Undaunted, the
following year the Band again accompanied the St. Botolph’s Sunday School
trip, this time on a visit to Nostell Priory. (12)
Regardless of any patronage
which may have been bestowed by the Carter family or other benefactors, the
Band has, from its earliest days down to the present time, been largely
self-supporting, relying upon the skill and enthusiasm of its members to
elicit the patronage of the local population. That support from this source
has generally been forthcoming is largely due to the esteem in which the Band
has been held by the public because of its readiness to support any occasion,
civic or social within the town and district, particularly events held for
charitable purposes. Nowhere is this more clearly evident than in the case of
fundraising for the district medical charities which served the local
population.
During the last quarter of the
nineteenth century the custom had developed of holding an annual parade with
the Town Band leading representatives of the various friendly societies
through the main thoroughfares of the town as collectors sought random
contributions from bystanders in support of organisations such as Pontefract
Dispensary, Leeds Infirmary and Askern Spa Medicinal Baths. Thus, in 1881, the
Town Band led members of twenty lodges of the Oddfellows Friendly Society in a
march round the town as a preliminary to a service held in the Ropewalk
Wesleyan Chapel. Frequent heavy showers resulted in the temporary abandonment
of the parade but following the service, the group reformed and visited the
areas unattended earlier that day. (13)
A variation of the fund raising
activity of the Band is also evident from an earlier engagement at which, on
Monday and Tuesday, 23-24 August 1880, the Knottingley Town Band played for
dancing at Ferrybridge feast and gala which was held in support of the medical
establishments. (14)
The Oddfellows, Buffalos and
kindred organisations within the town formed the Knottingley Charitable
Institutions Committee which by 1884 had extended the number of charitable
events held within the town throughout the year including a gala event to
coincide with Feast Week activities on and around August Bank Holiday each
year. The earliest recorded gala concert was held at Grange Field, adjacent to
the residence of Mrs Hannah Martha Carter, in 1884. Within a few years the
event had been transformed, becoming an annual Hospital Sunday parade and
demonstration with which the Town Band was to be associated for over half a
century. (15) However, throughout the decade of the 1880s there appears to
have been a hiatus concerning the Town Band’s involvement with the annual
parade and demonstration, the rival Bagley’s Glassworks Band being regular
participants in the event. (16)
The ‘Glasshouse’ band was
formed by the employees of Messrs Bagley Wild & Co., whose glass bottle
factory had introduced the industry to Knottingley in May 1871. (17) The
precise date of the establishment of the Glassworks Band is not known but the
indications are that it was formed in the early 1880s for a report in the
Pontefract & Castleford Express, dated August 1883, states that: -
“The Brass Band of Bagley, Wild
& Co., under conductor, Mr. John Shaw, paraded the town on Saturday and Monday
and played well indeed considering the short time Mr. Jerry Johnson of
Castleford, the teacher, has had them under his tuition.” (18)
Although entitled a ‘brass
band’ reference to it as a ‘Brass and reed band’ is found in a report of a
concert performance which took place on Knottingley Flatts in June 1884, under
“their able bandmaster, Mr John Shaw”, when the efforts of the band were
stated to be “highly appreciated”, (19) as they no doubt were when the band
participated in a service at Christ Church, Knottingley, the same month. (20)
The move to establish a
glassworks band may have precipitated the reorganisation of the Town Band in
1882. Certainly, there exists at least one source which connects certain
personalities with both organisations. Recalling days of yore in newspaper
correspondence in 1977, Mrs Hodgson Walker referred to her father, John
Hartley Shaw, as the former bandmaster of the Town Band at the same time when
Sam and Jack Marshall were tutors. Other familial members of “the first
Knottingley Brass Band” to be mentioned were the Hargraves, Drapers,
Rowbottoms and the Pollards. Extant documentary evidence links individuals
from the above named families with subsequent membership of the Town Band and
it would appear, therefore, that for reasons which are unclear, a ‘breakaway’
occurred in 1882, with John Shaw and perhaps others, leaving the Town Band to
form the band of Bagley, Wild & Co., thus necessitating the reorganisation of
the Town Band and prompting the subsequent but erroneous impression that the
Band was established at that date. (21)
The existence of
two bands within the town, each frequently referred to in the local press as
‘Knottingley Brass Band’, makes definition of their individual activities
almost impossible during the ensuing decades. Indeed, the common nomenclature
serves to suggest that the Town Band and the Works Band and their common link
with John Shaw, were one and the same. Such is not the case, however, for aprt
from the historical evidence that the Town Band was in existence some twenty
years before the formation of the Works Band (indeed, a decade before the
existence of the glassworks with which the latter was associated) there is
clear proof that they were separate entities.
Continued on page two...
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