Band
This was a very happy part of my youth and school days. I was head boy, I played in the village band and we had many outings, playing at sports meetings at Santon Bridge, Beckermet, Gosforth and Seascale. St Bees of course and other places no doubt. We gave a concert on the beach on some Sunday evenings during the summer months, and we, or two or three of the band played for dances during the winter, all the proceeds for the band funds. We practised once a week in winter and twice in summer. We had a church parade or two, and quite often marched round the village.
I remember when Mother was laying ill, not a long time before she died. We stopped one evening in front of our house to play for her. She had a bed in the sitting room downstairs. Gerrard Thompson and I played a kind of duet on cornets, "Barbara Allen", with a little band accompaniment. He was a grand player and a grand chap.
We played Xmas carols at Xmas all round the village and the outlying farms. I was never a very good player but did play solo on occasions.
Our real bandmaster, Mr Joe Moore from a little place called Moor Row, was a Crystal Palace Gold Medallist 1st class. He was far better than any of us, and he gave his services for a very few shillings and I imagine a lot of the time we couldn't pay him anything. He used to cycle the five miles each way in all weathers and must have been very keen. We played some nice music and I leaned to like the more sober music and some of the lovely music of the operas.
The band is all gone now and the rooms burned down, what a pity. It was a grand thing for young people and some not so young.
One funny incident I recall. We went to play for Seascale sports. Seascale is about a dozen miles from St Bees and we had travelled there on the railway. Why I don't know, because we always had a charrabang "Lady Betty" belonging to the local taxi man Harry Brownrigg. Anyhow when we arrived at Seascale it was pouring with rain and the sports day was postponed. We were given tea and afterwards had made our way back to the station.
By this time the weather had faired and the sun was shining and we had an hour or so to wait for a train. No doubt Seascale sports committee were out of pocket and they'd already given us tea. Someone suggested we played a march or two round the village, just to prove we could play, and pass the time of waiting.
We had of course to decide on a kind of circular route, and it appeared that only Stanley Myers, who was our E flat bass player, knew the village at all well and he would lead us. We were to do route turning always left, so Stanley was put in the front rank where he would usually be, only instead of being in the middle he was on the end. We were to turn of course when Stanley turned.
Off we went. We would no doubt have chosen a march which was popular amongst us and to which we could do justice. We played "Slaidburn". We set off nicely, and got as far as the bass solo, which comes towards the end of the march. It was usually quite noticeable that as soon as we got to the bass solo the pace would quicken and away the big boys would go, they being in the front rank. Just as we got right into the middle of the double forte of the bass solo, we should have taken a left turn, following Stan and his E flat.
But this is what happened at Seascale. We didn't turn, only Stanley turned, he being fully engrossed in giving it all he knew. He was ten yards down the left turn and the rest of the band were going straight ahead. Forgotten was everything about following Stanley. We cornets being in the fourth and last rank were just disappearing from Stanley's road, when we all realised what had happened.
Everybody stopped playing, stopped marching and turned just in time to see Stanley who by this time was quite fifteen yards from the rest of the band, unhook his instrument off his chest and plonk it down in the middle of the road and walk off and leave it.
It was very funny and we all laughed and the people watching us laughed, but not Stanley, he never played in the band again.