In1842 "the era", Manchester engineer Joseph Whitworth produced a street-sweeping machine, which, after being in operation for ten months in Manchester, was reported to have changed that town from one of the dirtiest into one of the cleanest of the large English towns. The apparatus consisted of a series of brooms attached to two endless chains running over an upper and a lower set of pulleys, which were suspended in a light frame of wrought-iron behind a cart. As the cart wheels turned they gave a rotatory motion to the pulleys carrying the endless chain, and the series of brooms attached to them, which, being made to bear on the ground, successively swept the surface, and carried the soil up an incline over the top of which it dropped into the cart. The machines were for some time in use in Manchester, Newcastle, and Birmingham, and were considered to be cheaper, more efficient, and more convenient than hand labour. He presented a description of this apparatus to the Institution of Civil Engineers. (Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.)
Economic conditions were such that mine owners and textile manufacturers reduced the weekly wages for all workers seeing this as a way to stay in business and preferable to a redundant workforce. Living standards of the working classes were better than twenty years before giving rise to the Peterloo Massacre but the workers themselves perceived gross inequality of wealth and opportunity. Unrest developed and on 14 August 1842, 500 Grenadier Guards, 36 Royal Horse Artillerymen, and a 2 six-pounder guns arrived in Manchester by proclamation of Queen Victoria who came to the throne just five years earlier. The town was full of trade unionists gathered for a convention. It was the anniversary of Peterloo and the authorities were taking no chances.
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Economic conditions were such that mine owners and textile manufacturers reduced the weekly wages for all workers seeing this as a way to stay in business and preferable to a redundant workforce. Living standards of the working classes were better than twenty years before giving rise to the Peterloo Massacre but the workers themselves perceived gross inequality of wealth and opportunity. Unrest developed and on 14 August 1842, 500 Grenadier Guards, 36 Royal Horse Artillerymen, and a 2 six-pounder guns arrived in Manchester by proclamation of Queen Victoria who came to the throne just five years earlier. The town was full of trade unionists gathered for a convention. It was the anniversary of Peterloo and the authorities were taking no chances.
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The Military Band Era
The Band’s archives include well documented history taking us back to 1842 when, funded by public subscription, “Accrington Old Band” (often called "Accrington Band") was formed. In 1892 Accrington Choral Society, also founded in 1842, published an account of their history which was closely bound up with that of the Band. It reveals that:-
James Ramsbottom and George Ellis founded, controlled and instructed the new ensemble of musicians.
The original instruments and members on the muster-role were:-
Trumpets – W Duckworth, D Barnes
Trombones – T Barnes, R Smith
Ophicleides – T Bradley, J Clayton, J Smith
Cornets – R Catlow, W Smith, A Smith, H Ward, E Whittaker
Serpents – J Haworth, J Walsh, J Sherburn
Clarionets – W Duff, T Duff, J Broughton, A Heyes, J Cronshaw
Flute – T Fish
Big Drum – D Knowles
Kettle-drum – J Clayton
Triangle – W Jackson
Around 1854, largely as a result the technological development of valve instruments, the brass band came to the fore. Military bands (or concert bands) were very much larger, with reed and woodwind instruments being well represented, as they are today.
In 1859 and 1860, political upheavals in Europe led to the War Office raising volunteer military corps of over 130,000 men. Accrington Old Band got swept up in this and became the “7th Volunteer Rifle Corps (Lancs.)” and later known as the “3rd Lancashire Volunteer Regiment”.
Accrington was not incorporated as a Borough until 1878, making the Band one of its oldest continuing organisations.
In the late 1880s the name “Accrington Primrose Reed Band” was adopted, a patriotic gesture at the time. (The Primrose League was a Conservative Party group with very patriotic beliefs and took its identity from what was believed to be Prime Minister Disraeli’s favourite flower.)
When Oak Hill Park was opened Whit Monday, 22 May 1893 there were various volunteer regiments and their bands present. The press reported that "the Accrington Old Prize Band was also in attendance".
In May 1901 an article in the Accrington Observer reported:- "Quite a crowd of people gathered in Oak Hill Park on Sunday afternoon. The weather was all that could be desired, and the park looked at its best. The Old Band played selections and hymn tunes, the birds sang overhead and around rendering a novel and charming accompaniment. The music on the whole was fairly well rendered, though not free from defects."
In September 1914, under their original name, the Accrington Old Band was reported by the Accrington Observer as leading the parade of the newly formed Accrington Pals Battalion. "They played lively tunes as they marched past the Mayor who stood in front of Accrington Town Hall."
The Oswaldtwistle Recruitment Office for the Accrington "Pals" is now the Band's home base. (The Civic Arts Centre was formerly Oswaldtwistle's Town Hall and Council Offices.)
See http://www.pals.org.uk/enlistment.htm and http://www.pals.org.uk/training.htm#notes
Other documents and photographs reveal the Band as:-
1904 2nd Volunteer Brigade East Lancashire Regiment
1922 Accrington Military Prize Band
1931 North East Lancashire Military Band
1941 30th County of Lancaster (Accrington) Battalion Home Guard Band
1945 North East Lancashire Military Band
1959 Accrington Military Band
1974 Hyndburn Concert Band
The Concert Band Era
Hydburn Concert Band 1977
In 1974 the name was changed to Hyndburn Concert Band. Military style uniforms were abandoned and marching engagements no longer undertaken. Hair grew long. When this photograph was published by the Accrington Observer in December 1977 there was just one female member, Cynthia Baxter, who played baritone horn. Solo cornet player Alan Isherwood (extreme left) is today's Chairman. Next to him is cornet player Barry Bleasdale, who now plays tuba. He is also Bandmaster with Baxenden Concert Band.
In 2000 the band adopted its present name in a gesture that recognised the new Millennium and its wider Lancashire connections. The green and gold music stand banners still in use today are a memento of this change.
The move into the Civic Arts Centre resulted in a review of the music to be kept in the band's library. This resulted in a substantial amount historic material being donated to the Royal Northern College of Music where it is now known as the Sir Harrison Birtwistle Accrington Military Band Collection.
We are always pleased to hear from anyone who may have items or information relating to the Band's history.
The move into the Civic Arts Centre resulted in a review of the music to be kept in the band's library. This resulted in a substantial amount historic material being donated to the Royal Northern College of Music where it is now known as the Sir Harrison Birtwistle Accrington Military Band Collection.
We are always pleased to hear from anyone who may have items or information relating to the Band's history.