Welcome to the Website of Bilsdale Silver Band!

Bilsdale - a truly rural band!

Bilsdale Silver Band was started in the mid 1800's and is a thriving band of about 30 players. Three players are local farmers, and many other skills and professions are represented by players who come from as far south as York and as far north as Middlesbrough, and there are several families with two generations of the family all playing together. At present there are six teenagers in the senior band, and one of the slightly older players first joined the band in 1946!

The band plays for general public enjoyment, mainly on Sunday afternoons, and often outdoors in some of the most beautiful places in Yorkshire, including stately homes, abbeys, and seaside resorts. The busiest schedule of playing is from the Spring through to Autumn. At home the band supports the local community playing at occasional church services, and at the traditional village shows and fetes, giving an annual Christmas Concert in Chop Gate village.

The band is neither a 'competition band' nor a 'marching band', but has occasionally attempted both, just for fun, coming fourth in the Lofthouse Grand Village Band Contest back in 1859, (as ably described by Charles Dickens), and winning class 'C' for unregistered bands at Malton Brass 2002. In 2006, the Band came second in this competition.

There is a weekly practice, alternately in Chop Gate and Rievaulx Village Halls, and everyone plays just for the love of it, nearly all income going towards new music and repairing and replacing the instruments.

Many early photographs of the band are displayed with pride in the Sun Inn, in the centre of Bilsdale.

 

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