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Following government guidance, Brindle Band has met a few times over recent weeks for some socially distant rehearsals. Rotating between a different 6 members of the band, spaced 2 meters apart, playing stripped-down music. Small steps, but it’s good to be playing together again!
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Brindle Brass Band was originally formed circa 1810 as the Brindle Temperance Band, making it possibly the oldest brass band in the region, and indeed one of the oldest in the country. At first, the band was closely linked to the Temperance Society in order to promote the abstinence from alcohol within the working classes, an idea that has thankfully waned over recent years!
There is hearsay evidence passed down through members of a local family with direct connections through successive generations that the band was formed in 1804 by John Rigby, a weaver of Whittle le Woods, who was followed by his son, John (1816-86) a quarryman, who is described on the marriage certificates of three of his children as a bandmaster. During this time the band was based at the Bay Horse Inn in Whittle le Woods and subsequently, they moved on to other local pubs.
By the 1900s the band was becoming increasingly well established within the local community and made regular appearances at walking days and fields around the villages of Higher Walton and Walton-le-Dale – a tradition that still continues today.
During the late 1950s and 1960s the band became known to a wider audience of football supporters by performing during the half-time interval of home games at Preston North End Football Club, these including the home team’s signature tune ‘Margie‘.
Since the 1970s, Brindle Band has become well known for its ability to entertain by extending its repertoire to include contemporary pop arrangements and music from the shows as well as more traditional brass band arrangements.
