European and Yorkshire champion Black Dyke has been awarded £61,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for what has been described as a remarkable ground breaking project.

The Black Dyke Band Heritage and Archive Project will gain total funding of £94,500 to enable it to make its vast collection of memorabilia, music and historic banding artifacts accessible to the world — including an unprecedented treasure trove of original hand written manuscripts and early recordings.

Remarkable history

As part of the project, approximately 180 volunteers will gather together an oral history from people that have been associated with the Queensbury band.

The archive project will also see a comprehensive cataloguing and digitising of music from the first 100 years of Black Dyke's remarkable history dating back to its formation in 1855.

A heritage website will be created to view and listen to excerpts of historic music and recordings, view artefacts and photographs. They will be accompanied by audio and visual descriptions, with an additional social history to place the achievements and milestones in a wider context.

Interactive technology

The project will be housed at the Black Dyke heritage centre, which will be open to visitors, educationalists and brass band supporters and will incorporate the latest interactive technology.

In addition, the band will produce an educational resource pack, working with young people in support of the Arts Awards Scheme (Explore) in collaboration with the West Yorkshire Education Services of Kirklees, Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield and Calderdale, to deliver a cross-curriculum in-sight to the social history of brass bands.

The archive project will also see a comprehensive cataloguing and digitising of music from the first 100 years of Black Dyke's remarkable history dating back to its formation in 18554BR

Anniversary

Commencing in May, the project will coincide with 40th anniversary of Black Dyke being awarded the Freedom of the City of Bradford.

The band will work with Black Dyke Mills Heritage Centre and Local History Society as well as the West Yorkshire Local Authority Music Hubs in developing the project, and there will be a large scale launch event in 2017 to celebrate the project which will be staged in Bradford.

Thrilled

Commenting on the award, Director of Music Professor Nicholas Childs told 4BR: "We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are confident the project will support young people and local communities in learning about the incredible heritage of Black Dyke Band and life within Black Dyke Mills itself — the band's founding home."