Band made room for dance night at new base
ONE hundred years ago this week, on April 16, 1921, Water Prize Band held a Saturday night ‘Social & Dance’ to celebrate the opening of their new band room.
April 2021 might not see the same grand event being planned, but the renamed Water Village Band is about to mark the start of a revamp of the current band room to get it ready for the move out of Covid-19 lockdown.
Back in 1921 the committee and members were so proud of their new premises that they engaged four solo singers and an accompanist to provide entertainment while the band played ‘all the latest dances’. An advertising poster proclaimed proudly that they had had ’the floor specially waxed for the occasion’ to make dancing easier.
The ’new’ bandroom was, in fact, a wooden ex-army barracks hut, surplus to requirements after the First World War, which the band had bought and rebuilt on land next to Water
School. This lasted for around five decades until the band moved again into its current building, the one-time Townley Arms pub and outbuildings.
Now itself showing signs of age, Water Village Band have been successful in gaining funding support from Lancashire
Environmental Fund and Brass Bands England to revamp the building to make it more environmentally sound and help it to continue as part of the Lumb and Water community for years to come.
Band Trustee Elaine Roberts said: “As well as the grant funding we ran a Crowdfunder campaign in December which raised more funds to help with the revamp and we’re grateful to all our supporters.
“And, who knows, once the work is finished and everyone is free from the pandemic restrictions we may feel like celebrating with a social and dance again. We might even wax the floor!”