Leading press photographer Lorne Campbell paid a visit to Brass Bands England (BBE) headquarters in Barnsley this week to capture images of the numerous historically important artefacts that are now held there in safe storage.

They were once housed in the Brass Band Archive in Wigan, but have since been moved by BBE in the hope appropriate funding can be found to enable the collection of music, trophies and memorabilia to be made available for future public access and display.

Fascinating collection

Speaking about the collection BBE's Partnership & Relationship Development Manager Alex Parker said: "It's now two years since the Brass Band Archive had to leave its premises in Wigan, and in that time we have been actively investigating the best way for this fascinating collection to get back on public display."

He added: "There are over 8,000 sets of brass band music, countless historic programmes and photographs, plus a vast array of other artefacts in the collection, but every single one of them needs careful examination before it can all be available for the banding public again and that requires considerable resources.

BBE is currently exploring various funding sources and we are in discussion with several institutions in order to find a suitable home for it all.

Like nearly everything else, Covid-19 has unfortunately delayed the process somewhat, which is frustrating for everyone."

BBE is currently exploring various funding sources and we are in discussion with several institutions in order to find a suitable home for it allBBE

Progress soon

Alex concluded: "Hopefully there will be some real progress soon.

Apart from anything else we would like half of our office space back, but we realise how important material like this is to many people and we're exploring every avenue to get the Brass Band Archive back to full operation as soon as possible."