UBIQUITOUS AMBASSADORS
KNOTTINGLEY SILVER BAND
by TERRY SPENCER B.A. (Hons), Ph D.
Dedicated to the memory of my adoptive mother
LILY SPENCER
For all her selfless love and sacrifice.
“No occasion, gay or solemn, was without the attendance
of the Silver Prize Band from its foundation outwards.”
John Hargrave, Pontefract & Castleford Express, 1977.
CONTENTS
Chapter One:
Origin & Early History: circa 1860 - 1900
Chapter Two: The Early
Twentieth Century: 1901 - 1920
Chapter Three: The Mid
Twentieth Century: 1921 - 1945
Chapter Four. The Post War Period: 1945 - 1960
Chapter Five. Decades of Change: 1961 - 1980
Chapter Six. The Late Twentieth Century: 1981 - 2000
Chapter Seven. A New Era: 2001 - 2005
NOTES:
The principal source of information concerning the history of Knottingley Silver [Prize] Band is the collection of five minute books within the Band archive, covering the period 1904 to the present date.
For ease of identification I have listed the minute books 'A' to 'D' according to their chronology.
Book 'A' covers three separate periods: 9-5-1904 to 31-1-1907; 14-3-1912 to 30-10-1912; & 13-2-1949 to 21-1-1959. The gap between these two sets of dates corresponds to the period when, for reasons given within the study, the Marshall family and Samuel Marshall in particular, exercised absolute control over the business of the Band and appear to have dispensed with the necessity to keep a formal record of Band affairs, thereby robbing future historians of much useful detail concerning the historical development of the Band.
Book 'B' covers the period 2-6-1959 to 7-4-1978.
Book 'C' covers the period 9-6-1978 to 2-8-1994.
Book 'D' covers the period 13-3-1995 to 31-10-2001.
The pages of the minute books are not numbered and I have therefore used the dates when the recorded meetings took place as the means of identifying items of information.
I have also had recourse to the Finance Committee minute book 29-9-1982 to 31-10-2001 as well as a number of miscellaneous documents from the Band archive.
I am particularly grateful to Mr. R.H.Baxter, until recently the Band Secretary, for placing the above sources at my disposal and for his helpful response to numerous queries regarding the same.