Bolsover Colliery Band

The brass band of Bolsover Colliery, formed in 1894, three years after the colliery began raising coal, which contested as Bolsover Colliery Silver Prize Band and later Bolsover Colliery Welfare until at least 1977.

The mining history in this record

The Bolsover Colliery Company began sinking at New Bolsover in 1889 after taking a lease from the Duke of Portland, and first raised coal late in 1891. The company built a model village for its workforce in the 1890s, with a miners' institute, school, co-operative store and orphanage, and its design included a bandstand on the village green. The colliery's band was formed in 1894 and appears in brass band records as Bolsover Colliery, Bolsover Colliery Silver Prize Band, Bolsover Colliery Welfare and Bolsover CW.

Brass Band Results lists 87 contest results, the first in 1907 and the last in 1977. Entries cluster in the 1920s, with fifteen in 1924 alone, and continue through the 1930s, 1950s and 1960s, and in 1975 and 1976 the band competed in the fourth section at the CISWO Nottinghamshire and National Mineworkers contests under conductors D. Milner and J. Hawley. Photographs from the Webley family show the colliery band in the 1920s, with Thomas Webley playing the bass tuba and a Mr Foster as bandmaster.

People

Thomas Webley, bass tuba player; a Mr Foster, bandmaster in photographs of the 1920s; conductors D. Milner and J. Hawley in 1975-76.

Legacy today

The band no longer exists. Its contest record, and the photographs that Bolsover families have kept, are what survive of it.

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.

• The Bolsover Colliery band was formed in 1894. (documented fact) ¹
• The band was also known as Bolsover Colliery Silver Prize Band, Bolsover Colliery Welfare and Bolsover CW. (documented fact) ¹
• Brass Band Results lists 87 contest results for the band, the first in 1907 and the last in 1977, with fifteen in 1924. (documented fact) ¹
• In 1975 and 1976 the band competed in the fourth section at the CISWO Nottinghamshire and National Mineworkers contests under conductors D. Milner and J. Hawley. (documented fact) ¹
• The model village built by the Bolsover Colliery Company in the 1890s included a bandstand on the village green. (documented fact) ²
• Photographs of the colliery band in the 1920s show Thomas Webley playing the bass tuba and a Mr Foster as bandmaster. (later recollection) ²
• The band no longer exists. (documented fact) ¹

Mines

• Bolsover Colliery — Derbyshire
  The colliery of New Bolsover whose company's band this was, formed three years after the colliery first raised coal.

Sources

1. (secondary) Bolsover Colliery - Band (Brass Band Results) — Brass Band Results
2. (secondary) Bolsover (oldminer.co.uk) — oldminer.co.uk

Record created: 18 September 2026 · Last researched: 30 September 2026