B Winning and Blackwell Colliery Silver Prize Band

The brass band of the Blackwell Colliery Company's B Winning and Blackwell pits in north Derbyshire, recorded at seventy-five contests from 1885 to 1934. Under its conductor T. F. Ward it won five first prizes in three weeks in the summer of 1934.

The mining history in this record

The band contested under several forms of its name, B Winning and Blackwell, B Winnings Colliery and Blackwell and B Winning Colliery among them, and is recorded at seventy-five contests between 1885 and 1934, mostly in the Midlands. It was at its strongest in the early 1930s under T. F. Ward: first at Long Eaton in 1932, at Codnor and Sutton-in-Ashfield in 1933, and it played in the championship section of the City of Leicester festival in March 1934.

In August 1934 it won first prizes at Hasland on the 4th and Codnor on the 11th and two firsts and a cup at Shirebrook on the 18th, five firsts in three weeks, as the newspapers reported. Its last recorded contest was at Worksop on 8 September 1934, where it came third.

People

T. F. Ward, conductor in the 1930s.

Legacy today

The band no longer exists.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• In three weeks of the summer of 1934 the band won five first prizes, two of them and a cup at Shirebrook on 18 August. (contemporary account) ^1,2
• The band was conducted in the 1930s by T. F. Ward. (documented fact) ^1,2
• Seventy-five contests are recorded for the band, from 1885 to September 1934. (documented fact) ²
• The band no longer exists. (documented fact) ²

Mines

• B Winning Colliery — Derbyshire
  The colliery band of the Blackwell Company's B Winning and Blackwell pits, a prize-winning contest band in the 1930s.
• Blackwell Colliery — Derbyshire
  The band bore the Blackwell Colliery name with the B Winning, under which it contested from 1885 to 1934.

Sources

1. (primary) Band's Successes (newspaper article, 1 September 1934) — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) B Winning and Blackwell Colliery — Brass Band Results

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026