ONE OF THE MOST popular forms of public entertainment in past times was a brass or silver band which has existed in the town on at least three occasions. Although all amateur players, they gave pleasure to many with their public performances but these bands never lasted and this may have been because of the outbreak of the various wars during the 19th and 20th centuries when musicians were called up for military service. 

This would seem to be the explanation because those that did exist foundered during the Boer War of 1899-1902, the Great War of 1914-18 and the Second World War of 1939-45 and there has not been one in the town since then. 

The first mention of a band in Bourne is in the middle years of the 19th century when one of the musicians was Joseph Flatters who worked as a photographer in North Street and played the trumpet. He emigrated to Canada in 1871 with his wife Frances and their three young children, taking with him his engraved instrument which he used to entertain fellow passengers on the voyage to the New World.  

He settled near Quebec where his descendants live today and the trumpet is one of their prized possessions. Flatters was a young member of the first Bourne Brass Band, formed in 1857 and soon fulfilling public engagements. On Friday 5th June that year, a local newspaper reported: “The members of the band assembled in the Market Place on Wednesday evening last and played a selection of music. They now number about 20 and since they last appeared have procured a drum and bass bombardon [a form of brass tuba]. An improvement was easily detected in their performances. Subscriptions amounting to upwards of £2 have been collected in aid of the funds for purchasing instruments and music.” 

A second band was formed in 1887 and after several months of practice, was sufficiently proficient to play in public. The prime mover was Alfred Stubley, a local tradesman and a music lover with a reputation as a choral conductor at local concerts as well as being choirmaster at the Baptist Chapel in West Street. He began appealing for support with a notice in the local newspaper on 22nd July, having discovered that there were several able musicians living in the area who might be recruited.  

By September, 22 men all possessing their own brass instruments, had agreed to join and started preparing for their inaugural concert under the direction of Mr Stubley who became the first conductor and usually holding practice sessions in the kitchen of his home in West Street. The instruments included cornets, trombones, tenor and baritone saxhorns, euphoniums, bombardon, base and side drums, and the band played at several functions during the following weeks but their first major public event was held on Christmas Eve when they played carols in the market place to a large and enthusiastic gathering. 

The success of the band was assured and the following year they appeared at a variety of functions, at cricket matches and church fetes, as well as giving promenade concerts at the Abbey Lawn, a musical entertainment then popular in England and which soon became a regular feature in the social life of the town. Although the band appeared at most civic functions free of charge, they were paid a fee for private engagements and during 1889, for instance, £50 was raised in this way. 

But the band did not survive the Great War of 1914-18 although there was still a tremendous enthusiasm in the town for making music and another Bourne Town Band was formed soon after the men returned from the front. An inaugural meeting was held at the Angel Hotel in September 1921 when a management committee was appointed and the provision of uniforms discussed. It was resolved to follow tradition by using the name Bourne Town Band and agreed that the bandmaster should be Richard Newton Pattison, a local tailor and trumpet player, who was well known in the town for sounding The Last Post on Remembrance Day Sunday every November in the market place where the service was held in the years before the War Memorial gardens were opened in 1956.  

The meeting was told that between £80 and £90 would be needed to equip the band and it was resolved that the money would be raised by subscriptions or donations canvassed throughout the town and an account for this purpose was opened at Lloyds Bank in North Street. This enabled the purchase of smart uniforms made in forest green material with silver braid, and the following year the band was giving its first concerts. It was also in great demand for parades as well as appearing at social occasions and garden fetes when the band would play selections of popular melodies of the day throughout the event and then provide the music for the dancing afterwards. 

The band was a particular favourite of the vicar of that time, Canon John Grinter, pictured above with the band on the vicarage lawn which he made available for concerts during the summer months that were well attended over the next few years. Christmas was also a popular time for carol concerts in the market place and in the surrounding villages which always received a visit when everyone gathered round and joined in with tremendous enthusiasm. 

This band also failed to survive and as members left for military service following the outbreak of war in 1939, closure was inevitable and this time it was not re-formed. The brass band tradition, however, has been revived in recent years with the popular music in the park events provided by visiting bands playing in the War Memorial gardens on selected Sunday afternoons during the summer months.  

Unfortunately, there is no permanent place for the musicians who have to sit around the stone cenotaph and as a result, a vigorous campaign is currently underway to build a Victorian-style bandstand to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War which will be observed throughout the country in August next year.