Sutton Manor Colliery Institute Prize Band

The prize band of Sutton Manor Colliery at St Helens grew out of the pit's miners' institute, which opened in 1922 with a room set aside for band practice. On Saturday 27 February 1932 the band gave a live fifteen-minute broadcast on BBC radio, with H. Moss conducting and solos from W. Kenyon on trombone and E. Clayton on cornet. It won contests across the North West through the 1930s, and when Sutton Manor was combined with the neighbouring Clock Face Colliery it merged, in 1946, into the Clock Face and Sutton Manor band. A jazz band raised from the colliery during the 1926 lock-out had earlier toured neighbouring towns to raise money for miners' families.

The mining history in this record

The pit and its institute Sutton Manor was the only colliery opened within the old St Helens boundary in the twentieth century: sinking of its No. 1 shaft began in May 1906, the shaft was completed in December 1909 and No. 2 in 1912. The miners' institute opened in 1922, a corrugated-iron building in Jubits Lane with a bar, a games room and a larger room used for dances and for brass band practice, and it was from this institute that the colliery band took its name.

The 1926 lock-out During the 1926 lock-out a jazz band was raised from the colliery and toured the neighbouring towns to raise funds for miners' families, a common form of self-help in the coalfields that year. The prize band itself was competing by the later 1920s.

Broadcast and contests On Saturday 27 February 1932 the Sutton Manor Colliery Institute Prize Band gave a live fifteen-minute broadcast on BBC radio, conducted by H. Moss, with W. Kenyon taking the trombone solo and E. Clayton the cornet. In the contest field the band took second place in the Class B section at Belle Vue in 1931, first in Class B at Belle Vue in 1936, first at the Freckleton contest in 1938, and second places at Ancoats and in Belle Vue's Class A in 1939, among a run of results from 1926 onward. Its conductors over these years included J. A. Greenwood, Harold Moss and J. Gaskell.

People

H. Moss (also given as Harold Moss), who conducted the 1932 broadcast and was among the band's conductors alongside J. A. Greenwood and J. Gaskell; the broadcast soloists W. Kenyon (trombone) and E. Clayton (cornet).

Legacy today

When Sutton Manor and Clock Face collieries were brought together the two pits' bands were combined, in 1946, into the Clock Face and Sutton Manor band, and the Sutton Manor name passed out of the contest lists. Sutton Manor Colliery itself worked on until 1991; the pit site is now open land crowned by Jaume Plensa's 2009 sculpture Dream, raised in memory of the mine.

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.

• On Saturday 27 February 1932 the Sutton Manor Colliery Institute Prize Band gave a live fifteen-minute broadcast on BBC radio, conducted by H. Moss, with W. Kenyon on trombone and E. Clayton on cornet. (contemporary account) ¹
• The colliery's miners' institute, opened in 1922 in Jubits Lane, had a room set aside for brass band practice and gave the band its name. (documented fact) ¹
• During the 1926 lock-out a jazz band raised from the colliery toured neighbouring towns to raise funds for miners' families. (documented fact) ¹
• The band contested across the North West from 1926, winning the Class B section at Belle Vue in 1936 and the Freckleton contest in 1938 under conductors including J. A. Greenwood, Harold Moss and J. Gaskell. (documented fact) ²
• On the amalgamation of Sutton Manor with the neighbouring Clock Face Colliery the band merged, in 1946, into the Clock Face and Sutton Manor band. (documented fact, uncertain) ²

Mines

• Sutton Manor Colliery — Merseyside
  The band took its name from Sutton Manor Colliery and its miners' institute, and was raised from the pit's workforce and community.

Sources

1. (secondary) Sutton Manor Colliery Part 1 — Sutton Beauty & Heritage
2. (secondary) Sutton Manor Colliery Band (Brass Band Results) — Brass Band Results

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026