Shropshire Magazine

Jackfield Brass Band pictured in 1906.

Shirley Tart pitches it perfectly when she catches up with Jackfield Brass Band – a musical group that’s going places

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade. Well in the case of Jackfield Band, not quite as many trombones as that. But Shropshire’s oldest brass band has certainly led more than a few big parades in its time and what it can proudly boast is a whole history of music-making touching three centuries.

Formed in 1893 as a drum-and-fife outfit, it became a brass band two years later, survived the whole of the last century, dodged wars, and kept going through the toughest of financial times. It still attracts fresh-faced and enthusiastic youngsters who simply enjoy making music. Jackfield Band’s kind of music.

The band has made its home in some unlikely places through all those years, but its present one is perfect . . . and cost just a fiver!

In its time, what is now Jackfield Elcock Reisen Band – due to the amazingly generous sponsorship of the local coach company – variously bought what was fondly known as Jack Harris’s old bakehouse, then the wooden hut next to the old Wesleyan Chapel, and finally, the chapel itself. Veteran member Paul France, who joined up in 1955 when he was 12, and Darrin Smith, a Jackfield bandsman for 25 years, still can’t hide grins when they reveal that they did indeed buy the chapel for £5 from Telford Development Corporation.

Mind you, they spent another £25,000 knocking it into shape. Darrin says: “The lads in the band were great and we did a lot of the work ourselves.”

Bryan Adams with his tuba.

Visit them now, and their chapel emporium is as stately a headquarters as any leading band could wish for – and happily, right there in the heart of the place where it all began. You wouldn’t mistake it, either. From chairs and music stands, to pictorial records of all those years and a massive poster recording the band’s part in the touring version of the wildly successful Brassed Off – they were called up for duty during the show’s Birmingham run and had a whale of a time playing the famous Grimley Colliery Band – it is clearly a musical base.

Restoration

In fact, it is home! Their chapel is dated 1825 and the restoration over several years has provided not only a purpose-built rehearsal room but also doubles for functions, with kitchen facilities and the modern requirements of disabled access to also serve the local community.

The talented musicians and all the characters who have kept the band going down the years are legion. For instance Paul recalls when he joined as a lad there were five Hudson brothers in the band. He says: “Cec lived in Coalbrookdale, there was Harry, Norman lived in the family home in the village, Edward had just finished playing when I started and then there was Bill. I remember Cec saying ‘he never sticks at anything our Billy, he only did 20 years.’” Paul grins and adds: “Those brothers all worked in the foundry, all smoked and all made old bones. Playing in the band is good lung exercise!”

The band has been sponsored by Elcock Reisen since 1990 and has never had to pay for a coach since, and moved into its permanent home in 1999. Now, of course, there are many enthusiastic girls as well as boys in the band world and this group is no exception. Paul says: “When I started, a member called Tom Brown used to bring his granddaughter Heather to practices. She really was a woman in a man’s world, then.”

Things have changed. Today, Gayle Bussey is principal cornet player and there are another half-dozen women in the band line up.

The band’s links with the Mellingen band from Switzerland came about when a cornet player from the Mellingen outfit, Thomas Hitz, came to work for a Swiss company in Telford. He was directed to Jackfield to continue his playing while over here and a bond was forged.

Today’s musical director is Chris Lewis. But local boy Wayne Ruston is also credited with a massive contribution in recent years. Born in Telford, he started playing trombone in 1971 at Abraham Darby School before joining the City of Coventry (Jaguar) Band. That band won the British Open in 1981 after which Wayne conducted the Jackfield Band, helping bring it from a non-contesting band into the ‘first section’, achieving four national final appearances in six years.

Since then, fortunes have been many and varied. But treasured in and out of the county, the amazingly popular and talented band plays out its big news that it has gained promotion for 2009 back to the championship section, home of the world’s finest brass bands.

The oldest and still the best.

The band at practice.

Quirky

The quirky and picturesque village of Jackfield is a mile downriver from the world’s first iron bridge, such an important international landmark. It has been justifiably proud of its own brass band during an era which saw two world wars, great industrial change and a crippling depression.

And through it all, the band played on.

Indeed it has notched up countless concerts, weddings, funerals, acts of remembrance, other church services, marches, fêtes and festivals, and so many more functions which bind communities in a very special way. The band has performed locally, nationally and internationally, and won many prestigious competitions. Among their many engagements this year, they will head up a Gorge Brass Band Festival in Dale End Park, Ironbridge on July 12 and 13. That’s nearly home ground. And members are never more proud than being back in their village of Jackfield. At home in the chapel.