Description

2016 marked the 40th anniversary of the AD Concert Band, and we now continue into our 41st year of performing a wide range of popular music to audiences across the Midlands and beyond.

Our band is open to everyone, so if you are a woodwind, brass or percussion musician then we'd love you to join us.

We undertake over twenty public performances each year, in the Midlands and beyond. The band has a varied and extensive repertoire that includes classics, music from West End shows and popular film music.

Description

Mary Stevens Park is a well loved community asset in Stourbridge. The park receives approximately 1 million visitors per year. Dudley Council ha just completed a heritage lottery project which has involved £3.1 million being invested in improvements to the park. The improvements have included restoration of the grade 2 listed park gates, bandstand, War Memorial, Heath Pool, and the creation of a cafe. The park is a hive of activity throughout the year, with daily health and fitness activities, community group events and regular heritage and wildlife activities. Mary Stevens Park was gifted to the people of Stourbridge in 1931 by Ernest Stevens and has deed of gift restrictions in place.

The park has extensive facilities including:
- Outdoor gym
- Activity centre
- Large play area
- Toilets, and disabled access WC
- Café in the tea gardens
- Water play feature (seasonal)
- Tennis courts and multi-use games area (MUGA)
- Heath Pool (duck food available from activity centre and cafe)
- Crown Green bowls and croquet (charges apply)
- Free car parking subject to availability
- Stourbridge War Memorial
- Bandstand

The Mary Stevens Park bandstand is made of cast iron and was manufactured by Hill & Smith* Ltd of Brierley Hill in 1929.

Although the initial bandstand design was rejected in favour of a more elaborate and expensive structure, architectural historians
believe that the chosen version was picked from a catalogue, since it is strikingly similar to many others from that time.

Unfortunately, none of the original design drawings for the bandstand are available. It is likely that it was enhanced by some bespoke features, though, such as the materials for the roof.
Architectural historians John Bolton and David Mitchell indicate that the original roof material of bandstands like the one in Mary Stevens Park was usually zinc sheeting on timber joists and sarking or occasionally on an iron framework.

The bandstand also contained a number of glass panels located inside the cast iron supports. A narrow ring of iron on the roof of the bandstand may be the only remnant of these glass panels and may have been the method of securing the panels to the frame.
The existence of the glass panels within the bandstand is confirmed by a report in the Stourbridge Improvements Committee Minutes from 12th July 1944.

Stanley Road,

Stourbridge,

West Midlands,

England,

DY8 2AA.