Faversham Mission Brass Band

Faversham Life learns about the history of the Faversham Mission Brass Band

Words Amicia de Moubray Photographs Faversham Mission Brass Band

There was a time when the Faversham Mission Brass Band used to march around the town at 7.30am on Sundays to bring people to church. ‘It is legendary,’ says Jim Ransom who, along with his wife Mary, is a stalwart of the Brass Band that was founded in 1882. Jim, the Chairman,plays B Flat Bass, the biggest instrument, and Mary, the Secretary and the Treasurer, plays the tenor horn.

‘A first-rate brass band, all working men. It did my heart good to see such a blessed work being carried on for the Lord; God bless the brickmakers of Faversham,’ says an account written in 1892.

The history of this splendid institution is inextricably linked with that of the Faversham Gospel Mission on Tanners Street, and the brickworks (sadly now defunct).  ‘In a sense, the band came before the church,’ says Jim, explaining that working in the brickfields was dusty dirty and smelly.  The workers were not always welcome in the town’s many churches. Captain James Matson, a foreman at the brickworks, anxious to keep the brickies away from the plentiful supply of alcohol that was widely available in the town’s many pubs, started gospel meetings.

Religious fever took hold of Faversham between 1852 and 1885 when the Anglicans built the Brents Church. The Bible Christians, Baptists, Congregationalists, and Wesleyans also built chapels.

Initially the gospel meetings were held in the ‘Chicken House’ on North Lane, a three storey tarred timber building now long gone. But the congregation grew rapidly and moved to a hall in Partridge Lane but still that wasn’t big enough. In 1889 the Mission Hall, capable of accommodating about 1,000 people, was opened on the corner of Napleton Road and Tanners Street with two ceremonies on 9 January.  At the evening service the Chairman spoke of the need for people to be firm Christians and  not ‘Christian Humbugs’.

Traditionally the morning services were for the more well to do people, and the evening one for workers.

The band still plays for the church, at Easter, Christmas and the Harvest Festival and some civic events. They used to play every Sunday but as the players became more scattered – some come from as far afield as Ramsgate and Rochester -this proved to be no longer viable. Jim feels that the band is now sadly on ‘borrowed time’. The lack of music in schools is reflected in the ageing band players.  None are under 40.

The band rehearses every Tuesday in the Mission Hall and has 24 players. Most of them have been playing from an early age. Three are in their 80s, some are couples, others have long-standing family links such as Graham Harmsworth the current Bandmaster who began playing trombone at the age of 7. (He owns Music Bay in Herne Bay). His grandfather was also a member and his aunt was the first female player joining in 1946.

Mary remembers going to listen to her uncle playing in the band at Sunday night services in the Mission Hall aged four. ‘I would sit at the back of the hall with my colouring, listening to the band. Jim and Mary met when they were 14 in the 1970s when Jim moved to Faversham.  His father was the Pastor of the Gospel Mission Hall.

‘We are a very friendly band and play a wide range of music. ’ Jim explains that many other bands compete in leagues like football. Competitions are very important in the North taking place three or four times a year. The daughter who went to the Birmingham Conservatoire after attending QE plays in the Enderby Brass having begun, of course, in Tanners Street. ‘Her band is in the professional championship top league,’ says Jim.  They take part in three or four competitions annually.  ‘It is very big up there.’

In the summer, the band are often to be found performing in bandstands. A bandstand performance constitutes two sets lasting 45 minutes each. ‘We will give anything a go and are happy to travel because it is great fun. We love it.’

Their repertoire is wide ranging from brass band classics such as marches, to film music to Abba and Pirates of the Caribbean drawing on reams of music stored in six four-drawer filing cabinets in the band room.  Some of music is stamped ‘Gunpowder Works’, a remnant of the Gunpowder Work’s own brass band.

Most impressively, they have raised more than £20,000 for charity in the last 10 years, supporting many local causes including the Umbrella Centre, Faversham Assistance Centre and others such as Cardiac Risk in the Young and the RAFA Wings Appeal.

 

Forthcoming Performances

5 March Faversham Assembly Rooms, in aid of Street League. Admission £7.00

3 April 10.30 am  Good Friday Procession of Witness, Faversham Market Place

5 April  10.30am Easter Sunday Service, the Gospel Mission, Tanners Street

10 May 2.30pm Concert at Faversham Assembly Rooms in aid of Faversham Assistance Centre (FACE).  Admission £7.00

 

 

Text: Amicia de Moubray. Photographs: Faversham Mission Brass Band