At the end of May, Cawthorne Brass Band and friends had a wonderful day out to Scarborough. It was really lovely to go out together on a coach trip to the seaside. Everyone had a lovely time at the beach, where ice cream and fish and chips were consumed, and at least one sandcastle was made. And of course, it wouldn’t be Scarborough without a donkey ride!

For the afternoon we moved on to the hidden gem that is The Scarborough Fair Collection. If you have never been, we all thoroughly recommend it. We had such a wonderful time looking at vehicles from years gone by, and riding on Fairground Rides dating back to 1893!

There was also an impressive collection of Mechanical Organs dating from the 1900s to 1984, and not just one, but two Wurlitzers!

After Scarborough Fair, we headed back to home on the coach, via a fantastic carvery in Wakefield.

An event that should definitely be repeated!

Last weekend, we took a step back in time, nearly 60 years, to the Swinging Sixties!

Cawthorne Village Hall was transformed, ready for a good old-fashioned sixties shindig. There were sixties sweets, and drinks like cloudy lemonade, cream soda and bitter shandy. People were given a quiz sheet as they entered, and made themselves at home around the tables, ready for an entertaining night.

Everybody made a great effort with the costumes, it really made us feel we were back in the sixties. Alyson and Gwyn won the prize for best dressed on the night.

After a few bits of sixties music, it was time for the fish sellers to bring around cockles and whelks – actually they served that good old party favourite, prawn cocktail.

Everyone knows chips taste better out of a newspaper cone. I don’t know if it was that, or the amazing cooking skills of our resident ‘Chip King’, but they were certainly delicious!

Here Gwyn, dressed as a Cub Scout, and Rachel help to serve. Gwyn’s dedication to this costume won him a prize; it even includes a genuine badge that he wore in the sixties, when he was still in the Cubs.

And to finish, no sixties party would be complete without Black Forest Gateaux

After all the music was finished, and all the delicious food eaten, there was just time to draw the raffle, and mark the quiz sheets. A wonderful evening. I hope our audience had as much fun as we did in the band!

On Thursday we said goodbye to long standing member Alan, and Christine who has been invaluable behind the scenes and supporting the band. They will both be missed.

They have shared this message:

Alan & I would like to Thank you all for our gift, and send off on Thursday. We have both enjoyed coming along and we were made welcome from the start, sure Alan will keep up playing and no doubt I will get involved with a new band somehow!!!

So, once again thank you, we shall miss you all, but will be following you to see where you are when we come to visit family. Best wishes, and good luck with the 60’s night.

Christine & Alan

We really enjoyed playing at the Barnsley Inner Wheel 80th Birthday celebrations.

Special thanks to our two guest players, including one all the way from Sullivan, Indiana!

Cawthorne Band had a great time playing carols at The Travellers Inn in Oxspring earlier in December. What could be more festive than a Brass Band playing carols in a traditional pub?

Join us on December the 18th for the next carolling session.

Cawthorne Brass Band played an excellent concert at All Saints Church, Darfield at the end of November. A beautiful Saxon church, with great music, raising money for the church and for the 24th World Scout Jamboree at West Virginia, USA next year. £150 was raised towards the Church replacement bell tower ropes, and £140.52 for Megan’s Jamboree Fund.

The longest standing member of the band, Elvin, celebrated his 70th birthday with a cake, candles and a special rendition of Happy Birthday.

There was a great turnout for the Cawthorne Remembrance Sunday Parade and Service.

A very impressive sum of nearly £800 was raised for two charities, The British Legion and Help for Heroes.

We will remember them.

We held our annual General Meeting on the 11th October.
It was a thoroughly successful meeting, with much enthusiasm from the whole band.
Our new core committee members are:
Chair – Bridget Milinkovic
Secretary – Ellie Murray
Treasurer – Val Francis

The new committee consists of 10 people, 5 of whom have not previously been committee members.

We look forward to seeing the new ideas that come out of this new team.

Last Thursday (23rd August), we had a band social to mark the end of the summer holidays. The band rehearsed as normal during the first half of the evening, then band members and their families tucked into an abundance of meat, cake, salad, wedges, and the odd drink too.

Many thanks to Ellie and Holly for organising, and to Jim for doing the cooking during the rehearsal.

This looks set to become an annual event.

The people of Cawthorne excelled themselves again with a brilliant Summer Fete. We really enjoyed being involved. The band played two small sets to an appreciative audience, and also ran some traditional games – horseshoe toss, guess the name of the band mascot and ‘play your cards right’.

It was a lovely day, with a variety of entertainments on offer, dancing, Punch and Judy, and lots of tasty food too!