Introduction
The earliest reference to the existence of a band in Shepley appeared in a newspaper
article describing the annual Trinity Sunday Feast in 1865. This is evidence that
Shepley Brass Band was one of the oldest in the area. Some years later the paper
described a chaotic brass band competition that was run under the auspices of Shepley
Band and was administered by a number of band members and officials. One paragraph
mentions a similar competition held some twenty-
However, what is evident is that music played a huge part in Shepley life during the late 1800’s at a time when the village underwent tremendous growth and wealth. Whilst the original intent of our research was to focus on Shepley Band, records of a much broader music organisation have come to light and the same names of key individuals are woven through a web of musical groups – choirs, quartets, wind bands, brass bands and world renowned musical stars of the day. Shepley must have been a very affluent place to attract such people.
What follows is the research that band members have completed so far, and it is work that continues and no doubt will be added to as more information around the musical history of the village is discovered. The research confirms that today’s Shepley Band is firmly rooted into the very fabric of the village and is part of a glorious musical heritage.
Before discussing the history of Shepley Band it helps to understand the broader context of Shepley as a community and its place in history, particularly in the formative years of the 1800’s. At first glance it may seem that Shepley is simply a commuter village on a busy trunk road linking Huddersfield to Sheffield and that little remains of this rich history but there’s more to be discovered. However, walking around the village today uncovers many clues to its past and the people who lived here.
Like most villages, until the Industrial Revolution Shepley was a community based on farming and agriculture. The village is recorded in the Doomsday Book but it’s nearly eight hundred years later before it’s shaped into the village we know today. Three industries drove the growth of Shepley; wool, quarrying and brewing – and names of mill owners, quarrymen and brewers dominate the history books. You will see Senior’s, Armitage’s, Goldthorpe’s, Holden’s, Tyas’s and many more throughout the material on this page.
But it was the woollen mills and the specialist tailors that established themselves in the village that were responsible for the generation of wealth; and as the village grew so did the churches, schools, shops and infrastructure of the village, most of which still remains within the conservation area in the village centre today. You can click on the highlighted items in our timeline to learn more.
At the height of the 1800’s there were over thirty tailors in the village. Many traded cloth with the markets of Huddersfield and Dewsbury. The newly opened railway of 1850 meant that Shepley ’Higglers’ could travel further in a day selling completed suits to customers through extended finance schemes. This meant that a finished suit costing a few shillings would actually cost a few pounds at the end of the finance period. No wonder Higglers houses in Shepley had substantial safes fitted inside internal walls!
Shepley became the richest village in England -
‘In conclusion we note that the village of Shepley has the best trained musical talent of any village of its size in Yorkshire, and its concerts and oratorios are well patronised and ably supported by the leading professional artistes of the day. The musical societies forming the choral union of the district are liberally patronised, and for training and talent are known and highly esteemed by all the other musical centres of Yorkshire.’
Browsing through the timeline material really brings this statement to life and the realisation that Shepley was indeed a centre for fine music during the late Victorian and the Edwardian periods.
The first sixty-
As stated earlier, there must have been a band in Shepley since at least 1865 and probably earlier. It would not have been a brass band as we know but more like the Shepley Band of today with both brass and woodwind instruments. Saxophones were common in early brass band music and our library has old manuscripts showing woodwind instruments. Whilst Shepley Band was running a Brass Band Contest in 1896 there’s no record (to date) of Shepley itself performing in any early competitions.
The earliest record of the band is 1893 – a concert in St Paul’s National School.
Interestingly the band is referred to as Shepley United Brass Band implying that
the band had merged at some point with another band. However, the band seems to be
called everything from Shepley Band, Shepley Brass Band, Shepley United Brass Band
and even a Shepley Orchestral Band. We can only speculate as to whether these were
all one and the same. It should also be noted that the best seats in the house were
priced at two shillings (2/-
The 1893 concert also featured the Shepley Orpheus Prize Quartet with a Hayden H. Holden singing Alto. Hayden was one of Shepley’s wealthy tailors and lived at Jenkyn House on Jenkyn Lane (sadly now demolished and new houses on the site). He was later to figure in band history as President (as shown in a photograph dated around 1900). Hayden and the Holden names appear in a large number of musical groups during this time. We are indebted to John Holden of Meltham for allowing us access to a huge collection of concert promotional material – some of which is available for viewing as part of the Timeline and The Shepley Musical Society archive below.
1896 saw the opening of the new Boards School on Firth Street – now Shepley First School. The Shepley Orchestral Band played to celebrate the opening and thus demonstrated the tradition of the band playing at notable Shepley village events (the most recent being the unveiling in 2010 of the ‘Millennium’ bench at the entrance to the village).
The following year saw the band playing at an event in the grounds of the Vicarage. We have an undated photograph of the band at the Vicarage in around 1900 – perhaps they took the opportunity to have their photograph taken in 1897?
1898 shows us another glimpse of the status and ability of Shepley Brass Band when they gave a concert again in St Paul’s National School featuring a number of local artistes and included John Paley as Solo Cornet. Paley could be considered world famous. He had been a member of the Gilmore Champion Military Band of The World based in St Louis, USA and Principal Cornet with Black Dyke closer to home. It was Gilmore who in the early 1800’s pioneered the Concert Band. Again, the Shepley Orpheus Quartet performed and the ‘humourist’ was Walter Matthews; Matthews played trombone with Shepley Brass Band.
There is little photographic evidence of the band however, Elijah Moorhouse, a blacksmith who lived on The Knowle, was photographed around 1900 standing alongside a magnificent bass drum with the legend ‘Shepley United Brass Band’. A couple of photographs show Shepley Band members at the annual School Feast at Shepley Marsh in 1909 and the centre of the village (The Bridge) in 1911.
A year later in 1912, G.E. Senior of Cliffe House composed the hymn tune ‘Shepley’ which is still played by the band today. Confusingly, the original score for the tune states ‘Cliffe House, Denby Dale’ yet the house we know today as Cliffe House is actually in Shepley. It was built by the Senior’s (of brewing and Sovereign Ales fame), as the family home and today is owned by Kirklees Metropolitan Council. Maybe there was another Cliffe House in Denby Dale?
1914 of course saw the outbreak of the First World War and the last reference to Shepley Band rehearsing in 1915 at the now demolished Goldthorpes Mill on Cliffe Side (behind the Black Bull). Sadly, a number of band members are recorded on the War Memorial and many other names linked to those we know of being in the band in the early 1900’s. The band dissolved in 1926; maybe after such sad loss there were more weighty matters needing attention in the village.
In 1977 Shepley Band was resurrected. The first instruments in the Band were purchased
by monies lent by the members themselves and in the early years a number of fund
raising events took place to increase and improve on the instruments that Band had
acquired. During the 1980's the Band began to compete in local Brass Band competitions
in the Yorkshire Region -
However, by the very nature of the brass band movement, Shepley Band was seen as an excellent feeder band for the bigger and more successful bands in the Yorkshire area. Several players were lost to other bands and over time Shepley found it increasingly difficult to maintain a viable and successful band. Whilst understandable, the loss of players was disheartening for those that remained and the band.
In 1995 the decision was taken to change the format of the Band and open membership to woodwind players and since that time the Band has continued to develop playing wind band, military band and concert band music.
The band had a notable local conductor, Mr. Peter Nobes, described as 'a true gentleman and a fine musician’. Originally from Essex, Peter was a retired Police Chief Constable of West Yorkshire and under his baton and guidance the confidence of the Band began to grow once more and play more engagements. Sadly, Peter died suddenly in 1997 and was a great loss.
Despite low periods when it was difficult to get a Band together, through the hard
work of the Band’s Secretary, Sheila Jackson, Shepley Band never missed the traditional
start to Christmas in Shepley by playing Christmas Carols on the Village Green. Previous
members of the Band always came together to play on Christmas Eve. The tradition
continues and each Christmas Eve hundreds of villagers meet around the Christmas
tree on the Village Green to sing with Shepley Band and ex-
Dr. Paul Arthur took over the baton for a number of years and kept the small number
of dedicated players together continuing to play engagements around the village.
His hard work and dedication meant that Shepley Band stayed together -
Fortunately at that time the Band had contact with a brass band conductor based in
the Midlands. Paul Whyley agreed to conduct the Band on a fortnightly basis. Paul
was a long serving member of Newstead Brass and has recently re-
A number of individuals were approached and some were auditioned by the Band as part of the selection process. One of the band members knew a player through Cawthorne Brass Band and invited her along one rehearsal.
Judith Beatty was conducting and playing trombone full time at Huddersfield University
as well as helping out with Meltham Mills Brass Band and odd jobs with husband Jonathan
in Gary Cutts All Stars and Christmas jobs with members of Grimethorpe Colliery Band.
Judith thought she was just coming along to help out at Shepley -
Judith gained a landslide victory in the voting process and was invited to join the Band.
Since she joined, the Band has continued to go from strength to strength -
Shepley Band has a long and proud musical heritage. At times it has been difficult to sustain a viable Band through a number of circumstances but the dedication and extraordinary commitment of a handful of individuals since the Band reformed in 1977 has continued this musical tradition.
The Band's visits to Sweden in 2008 and Italy in 2010 were remarkable achievements given the recent difficult history but is evidence of what this unique group of individuals is capable of achieving through hard work, dedication, commitment to one another and a huge sense of fun.
The future for Shepley Band is once again looking exciting, challenging and rewarding for everyone involved.
Throughout the late 1800’s the Shepley Musical Society was very active attracting artistes from all over the country and a few from aboard. John Holden’s collection contains many concert programmes from the period and each year a series of three ‘subscription’ concerts would be held. A concert programme dated 1892 shows the following detail:
This is a small selection of Shepley Music Society programmes.
Note the numbers of artistes appearing at each of these concerts and the distances some of them travelled to appear in Shepley.
Of particular interest are the return train times from Shepley to Huddersfield included on a number of the flyers. These concerts must have had large audiences travelling from Huddersfield to Shepley.
1892-
1893-
1894 Concerts
1895-
1896 Concerts featuring The Shepley Orpheus Prize Quartet
1896-
1897-
1898 Concerts featuring the Shepley Orpheus Prize Quartet
1898-
A digital copy of the collection of programmes can be obtained on CD by contacting Shepley Band. There will be a small charge to cover costs and any postage.
George Washington -
John Mosley – Librarian
Seth S. Wood
Thomas Morton
Joseph Vickers
James Broadbent
John Cooke
A.E. Hoyland
Fred Farrington
Fred Mosley
Job Hollingworth
M.E. Hey
Norman E. Holden – Accompanist
J. Washington – Deputy Accompanist
M.E. Hey – Deputy Accompanist
S. Washington – Deputy Accompanist
D.W. Evans – Conductor
William Hey – Financial Secretary
Hayden H. Holden – Corresponding Secretary
Armitage, Mrs James
Armitage, Mrs Jackson
Booth, Miss N.
Bradley, Miss E.
Bower, Miss P.
Goldthorpe, Mrs Tom
Holden, Miss
Holden, Miss L.
King, Mrs S.A.
Lindley, Miss
Mosley, Miss J.
Morton, Miss A.
Morton, Miss M.
Morton, Miss F.
Priestly, Miss E.
Roebuck, Miss L.
Shrigley, Miss C.J
Smith, Miss E.
Smith, Miss J.
Smith, Miss M.C
Schofield, Miss L.
Swift, Miss A.
Swift, Miss E.
Vickers, Miss M.
Washington, Mrs W.
Washington, Miss P.
Wilkinson, Miss A.
Wood, Miss E.
Armitage, Mrs Edward
Holdsworth, Miss
Holdsworth, Miss L.
Morton, Miss
Priestly, Miss M.
Shrigley, Miss S.E
Stephenson, Miss A.E
Smith, Miss E.
Wilkinson, Miss J.
Brierley, F.
Broadbent, L.
Holden, H.H.
Holden, S.A.
Lindley, G.A.
Mallinson, A.T.
Schofield, W.H.O.
Washington, S.
Armitage, E.
Barrow, J.
Broadbent, J.
Cooke, J.
Cook, S.
Calderbank, E.
Calderbank, T.
Emmott, E.
Farrington, F.
Hey, W.
Hollingworth, J.
Hollingworth, S.
Ibbotson, J.E.
Lindley, J.H.
Peace, A.
Peace, W.
Vickers, J.
Washington, G.
Washington, W.
Woodhead, L.
Brierley, J.W.
Benson, H.
Goldthorpe, J.
Hoyland, A.E.
Hirst, W.H.
Hey, M.E.
Holden, N.E.
Holden, E.W.
Hardcastle, M.
Morton, T.
Mosley, F.
Turner, H.
Wary. G.H.
Shepley Musical Society 1892
President
James Senior
Vice-
Edward Armitage
John Armitage
James Armitage
Jackson Armitage
Richard Barnicot
Geo. H. Gouldthorpe
Eli Holden
Benj. A. Hey
Thomas Holden Jnr
Dr. Macgregor
S.A. King
Frederic Swift
Henry Senior
William Slater
The Industrial Revolution is underway
Shepley Band
History Timeline
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A Higglers House in Station Road -
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Shepley Band -
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Thanks to the following for their help and support in providing material and research:
David Billington -
Shepley Village Magazine
John Holden -
Mark & Sheila Jackson -
Judith Beatty -