The final bars of a marathon 7 year plus musical campaign to restore Todmorden Bandstand in West Yorkshire to its former glory are now being played out as it reaches its finale.

Originally built in 1914 in the town's Centre Vale Park, it fell into disrepair after being restored in 1999 and was in danger of being demolished after fire damaged its structure.

Campaign fight

However, campaigners fought against losing one of only six 'shell design' bandstands in the whole of the UK by setting up a Save Our Bandstand (SOB) group and looking for funding for it to be protected as a Community Transfer Asset.

Despite numerous set-backs the group finally saw their campaign succeed in getting the bandstand recognised as a Grade 2 listed building by Historic England. In 2020 further hopes were raised but fell away, only for the fight to continue through a Todmorden Town Deal initiative.

Success

The ultimate success has been hailed as a great example of community involvement and pride, although with the passing of time new volunteers are now needed to help protect and promote the wonderful community asset for future generations to enjoy, as well as battle against red tape and council bureaucracy in running it.

The relaunch of the old 'new' bandstand is therefore taking place on Sunday 22nd March with hopes not only for a fantastic day of musical and community entertainment, but that other people will now come on board and help protect it for the future.

Funding

One supporter has been the author Paul Rabbits who has written extensively about the heritage of British bandstands. He said: "The Towns Fund has provided the necessary funding to restore Todmorden bandstand, driven by the local community.

Pride in Place Funding has just been announced by the government, and it would be an opportunity to see improvements to parks and open spaces from this and where they exist still, bandstands restored accordingly and taken over by their local community."

He added: "A bandstand is, however, merely an empty shell unless music is played on it. Many are once again active but countless have yet still to wake up to the opportunities their bandstands offer to local communities."