Didsbury’s own brass band …… a story waiting to be told

Now, I may be wrong, but I don’t think there is a history of Didsbury’s own brass band.

The Didsbury Brass Band, 1985-1986

Of course, like all such bold statements I wait the angry letter pointing out a title and a publication date for a long-forgotten book.

I know they existed and have trawled and have found references in the local press along with a list of some of the competitions they performed in.

But so far, I have come across only one  picture of them performing to the public.  which was at the Didsbury Show in either 1985 or 1986.

Tantalizigly there is another photograph of a band from the Coronation Procession of 1911 which snaked its way through the township as part of the festivities.  But alas it is of the Alexandra Brass Band Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Co.

That said I bet our band was there.

I am not surprised at its existence, after all many of our twinships supported brass bands.

In Chorlton there had been a band from the 1820s which only folded in 1945, and along with others the Stalybridge Brass Band had marched to Peterloo in 1819.

The Alexandra Brass Band, 1911

I suspect the Didsbury band started pretty much like Chorlton’s with a small group of likeminded men coming together and playing at religious and secular events.  

In the case of Chorlton that band was reliant on local financial help and donations from rich benefactors, although this didn’t stop James Axon making a drum for his brother John which proved too big to get out of the house.

The development of the railway network during the second half of the 19th century made it possible for bands to travel out of their villages and participate in regional and nation al competitions which were eagerly reported by the media.

So far the earliest reference I have to the Didsbury band comes in 1874 when the Didsbury and Barlow Brass Band took part in a procession with St Chad’s, of York Street which was part of the annual Procession of Roman Catholic Schools.

Parading in 1911

The band was also on hand eight years later when Daniel Adamson the “chairman of the Provisional Committee to promote the construction of Manchester Ship Canal obtained a hearty welcome from the inhabitants of Didsbury on his return from London. Triumphal arches had been erected in his honour, and others erected on the way to his residence as well as one in the carriage drive leading to his house.  

He was met at Didsbury railway station by the Didsbury brass band, which immediately struck up with ‘See the conquering hero comes”.**

And this was followed up by a repeat when Mr. Adamson returned to Didsbury in the summer of the following year after the Ship Canal Bill had been passed.

But just what they made of the failed local gathering to welcome William Gladstone to Didsbury has not been recorded.  

He was due to arrive at the railways station after a meeting in town and then proceed to Ford Bank where he was staying the night.  The newspaper reported "that the inhabitants of Didsbury gathered at Didsbury station.  The members of the local Liberal Club had made extensive preparations to escort Mr. Gladstone to Ford Bank.  A brass band was in readiness, and upwards of 100 members of the club were waiting with torches, [but] unknown to everyone Mr. Gladstone had driven by road and that he had unobserved, passed through the village about the time his special train arrived” at the station with him not aboard.***

With the Band, 1985-1986

Not that this disappointment was a setback for the band who performed at the annual celebrations of Lifeboat Saturday in 1903 and 1904, and later entertained visitors to the Didsbury Flower Show of 1908 and the Didsbury Agricultural Show in 1931.

And in between and after they are listed at 20 competitions from September 1875 to December 1986.***

At which point the references cease and the database listing their appearances concludes with “This band no longer exists”.

Didsbury music in Didsbury, 1985-1986

But I am confident that there will be more.  

There are other Brass Band sites which I have used in the past and as 1986 is not that long ago, there will be people who remember the band and those who played in that band.

We shall see.

Picture; The Alexandra Brass Band Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Cofrom the Souvenir of the Coronation Festivities Held at Didsbury, June 22nd 1911, Fletcher Moss and at the Didsbury Show, courtesy of Nobby Dicks

*Procession of the Roman Catholic Schools, Manchester Guardian, May 30th, 1874

**The Manchester Ship Canal Bill, Manchester Guardian, May 26th, 1884

***Mr. Gladstone, December 4th, 1889

****Didsbury Band Competions,  https://www.brassbandresults.co.uk/bands/didsbury 

Off with the Alexandra Brass Band at the Coronation Festivities in 1911

“The great glory of the Coronation festivities of 1911 was the procession.  

Everybody in Didsbury was expected to take some part in it, either in work or money or both and both were freely given.

There were nearly a score of emblematic cars, that is wagons laden with villagers dressed in fancy costumes...”*

The coronation of King George V in 1911 was one of those opportunities when across the country there were festivals, processions, and all manner of activities to both celebrate the event and show off local patriotism.

Didsbury set to work with a Festivities Committee and the local historian Fletcher Moss recorded the day.

A few copies of his book with the accompanying photographs have survived and seem to have been plundered by almost all the historians of the township since it was published in 1911.

And not to be out done I shall do so too, starting with this one, showing the Alexandra Brass Band of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company passing behind the Didsbury Amateur Gardening Society.

Now I have yet to identify the exact spot but that will come in time, and later I rather think I shall also tell the story of the Didsbury Amateur Gardening Society, but in the mean time I want to resurrect my fascination for the brass band.

Contrary to popular belief they were not just a northern thing but could be found all over the country.


Some were works based others arose from a local chapel or church and others still had either a military connection or were entirely independent financing themselves through subscriptions and hence being called subscription bands.

The Alexandra Brass Band of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company was based at the Carriage Works on Newton Heath and I think they are ripe for a story.

But at this stage there is little to go on.

They are listed as defunct by the IBEW, played at the Didsbury festivities and in St Anne’s to celebrate the end of the Great War and there are two other references to them playing at Glossop in 1891 and Winsford in 1902.

There will also be references to them in the local papers of the period and perhaps even in the records of the railway company, all of which I will hunt down.

So in the meantime I shall leave you with them playing their hearts out in the June of 1911.

And with the promise of more pictures from that day along with a few of the words of Mr Fletcher Moss.

Picture; from the Souvenir of the Coronation Festivities Held at Didsbury, June 22nd 1911, Fletcher Moss

*Fletcher Moss, Souvenir of the Coronation Festivities Held at Didsbury, June 22nd 1911