(c’11-26) – John Blacklidge (band master), William Eede (bugler), and ?
Sometime between 1891 and ’11, a concert was held at Cranleigh’s old Village Hall to raised money for uniforms to kit out the Cranley Brass Band. George V’s Coronation Day, 22 June ’11, is our first noted performance of Cranley Brass and Reed Band (note the old spelling of Cranleigh). At some point in ’14 the band won a competition. On 19 July ’19 Cranleigh celebrated Peace Day, and in the intervals between sports events and performances at Knowle during the afternoon, the Cranleigh Brass and Reed Band provided music.
The combined choirs of the village’s two churches, augmented by members of the Choral Society, performed Handel’s Zadok the Priest, accompanied by the band. Our next encounter was on 13 November ’21, when a memorial service was organized by the Pal’s Club ex-servicemen’s organization, which was followed by a procession to the War Memorial, in which the Cranleigh Brass and Reed Band joined, and the band’s bugler, Eede, sounded Last Post and Reveille.
The first-ever Cranleigh Rectory Fete was held on 28 June ’22 – a Wednesday because it was early-closing day – at which the band performed. In ’24, according to the Parish Magazine, the Cranleigh Brass and Reed Band ‘was again reaching a high standard under Mr Whaley’ and at the Rectory Fete ‘in the gloaming, discoursed most sweetly’! October ’26 saw the band accompanying hymns at Harvest Festival evensong, after which we lose track of the band.
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