IT might be one of the smallest villages in the Forest, but Pillowell’s musicians have been making a giant sound since Victorian times.

Founded exactly 130 years ago this week, Pillowell Silver Band are ‘blowing from strength to strength’ as they celebrate their long history, which has seen hundreds of players pass through the ranks.

And inspired by the echoes of long-faded notes all around them, today’s musicians still blow up a storm in their 1903 purpose-built rehearsal room in Captains Green.

Springing from the growth of the Forest’s mining industry, the band formed as Pillowell Brass Band on February 1, 1889, and held their first practice on February 16.

Local historian Clare Ham, who researched the band’s history for the recently released Postcards from Pillowell book, says the first performance followed on Good Friday, 1889, at the Whitecroft Methodist Church’s anniversary concert.

By 1895, it was time for Pillowell to test their mettle against the best Forest bands by entering their first competition in Lydney, where they played ‘Pride of England’ under the baton of Thomas James.

“Members of the early band included Horace Jones, Richard Akers, Richard Willets, William Amos Smith, Sam Jones on cornet, Charles Thomas, Thomas Watts, Thomas Jones on tenor horn, George and Tho- mas Jones on baritone, Albert Wintle on euphonium, Thomas Morse on trombone, Charles Nelmes, James Adams on E flat bass and Sam Elway on drums,” adds Clare.

Pillowell conductor Jeremiah ‘Jerry’ Holdsworth ‘notched up’ an amazing 119 results from 1893 to 1912 including 28 wins, while other early baton wielders included Amos Phillips, William Holdsworth and J Partington.

The band – nicknamed ‘the Stompers’ – triumphed at the Lydney contest in 1897 to scoop the six guineas first prize and ‘an instrument worth eight guineas’.

And there was even more success at the Cinderford competition, when they landed the biggest ever prize awarded in the Dean at that time – 17 guineas – worth more than £2,000 in today’s money, says Clare.

“The band’s original practice room was the old chapel which had closed and was later bought by Pillowell and Yorkley Co-op Society.

“On 4 May 1903, William Lane was authorised to build a band room of timber and corrugated iron on a site at Captain’s Green, where the band room still stands today,” says Clare.

The First World War saw a decline in numbers, but those left still did their bit for the war effort, providing music for ceremonial parades and raising money for the troops.

And by the early 1920s, the band were back to full strength performing and competing again, before splashing out on new instruments in time for Berkeley Flower Show in 1926.

The 1930s brought many triumphs, including a cup-winning performance at the Daily Herald’s 1938 Alexandra Palace contest in London, with the trophy ‘stored for safety’ at the Stag Inn throughout the Second World War, and other wins at Cinderford, Walford, Whitecroft and Ruardean.

Robert Watkins, whose father was a lifelong Pillowell Band supporter, recalls band practice in the 1930s on the Sungreen Forest archive website (www.sungreen.co.uk).

“Twas a free music concert, no seats, standing only, unless you could do the collier’s quat, swot [Forest slang]. They always had a good audience and my brother and I had to be in with it,” he said.

“My father and his brother religiously went to Sunday practice whenever they could, in any inclement weather… when the band was at double forte it could be deafening…

“In the summer when the sun was shining the practice took place in the open, on the Rudge… in 1938 it was a very good band, always in competition with The Yorkley Onward Band.

“If perchance they did not win and especially if the Yorkley Onward Band beat them, there was always an inquest into what went wrong, as there was great rivalry between them.”

Clare said that despite the Second World War, the band continued to compete with success at Ruardean, Cirencester, Reading, Chepstow Castle, Lydney Park, Kerne Bridge, Sharpness and Fairford, achieving one of its biggest ever successes in 1945 by winning the area contest and going on to take second in the National Finals third section in London.

The ‘Welsh Sousa’, Tom Powell – who wrote ‘Forest Bells’ after hearing them pealing on his way to band practise – conducted the band to runners-up spot at the National Finals again in 1955, but hard times lay ahead as the band lapsed in 1964.

A small group of young players and ex-bandsmen were not prepared to let the music die though, reforming it in 1969, with its first public appearances on Christmas and Boxing Day mornings.

Clare adds that in 1977, Fred ‘Tedder’ Watkins was presented with a tankard for his 63-year association with the band, having joined in 1914 at the age of nine, and was made Pillowell’s first life member 10 years later.

The band scooped the Olympic cup at the 1979 Stroud Festival, plus individual awards for conductor Ian Watts, instrumentalist Ken Willetts and euphonium player Reg Ellis.

Looking to reinvigorate the band, Fred Watkins and Alan Beddis invited local schoolchildren to learn to play in the 1980s, while new musical director Clive Lewis took the band to Paddington Station to play for the 150th anniversary of the Great Western Railway.

Pillowell rose to the second section, winning first prize at Weston in 1992, and despite slipping back in 1999, it went on to win the West of England title in 2004 and place second in the Nationals.

Under Ian Whitburn, its players continue to make waves, sweeping the board at the 2014 Gloucestershire Brass Band Association contest, winning the West of England fourth section crown and placing eighth in the Nationals in 2015, and securing promotion last year to the third section.

Not bad for a band drawn from one of the smallest villages, and long may they continue to call the tune.

Any players interested in joining the band can contact secretary John Baker on 01594 562911.

For more information, see Postcards from Pillowell, which is still available from Paul Manning (01594 516259) or Chris Nancollas (01594 563483), and the sungreen.co.uk archive (Old photos of the Forest of Dean).