Description

Kippax Band has a long and proud history in brass banding dating back to the early 1800's. In fact, Band records dating back to 1933 state 'Band decided to have tea to commemorate the Band as the oldest brass band in England on January 13th 1934. This year makes 120 years as a band and 100 years as an all-brass Band'.

The Band has recently acquired an Indenture, which provides a fascinating insight into the Bands past.

Closely linked to the mining industry, the band had mining connections until as recently as the closure of the Selby Coalfield in the early 2000’s. It is still classed as a mineworkers band.
After securing National lottery funding in 1996 to purchase new instruments, the Band has continued to go from strength to strength and has helped to encourage the continuation of brass banding in the local area by donating its old instruments to local schools.

Indeed, in 2008 the Band decided to further strengthen the 'production line' of future players by introducing a Youth Training initiative. Run by members of the senior band, the Youth Training group receive individual and group tuition with a view to providing Kippax with many more locally-produced players for years to come.

Kippax has been a contesting Band for many years. From humble beginnings the Band progressed through the contesting ranks, rising to the heady heights of the Championship Section of the Yorkshire Regional championships during the 1980's and early 1990's.

Despite being relegated to the second section in the early years of the 21st century, the band have been delighted to return to 1st section banding in 2010 and looks forward to consolidating its position in arguably the toughest region in world brass-banding.

Recently, the contesting arena has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Band. Over the past 20 years the band has qualified for the National Finals on no less than four occasions and has won the Mineworkers Championships in 1994 (first section) and 2006 (second section) where it completed a memorable 'double' by also taking the Pontin's crown later in the same year.

Description

The Bandstand was built by volunteers and public subscription in 2000 by the river at the Wilderness Car Park in Wetherby.

Wilderness Car Park,

Wetherby,

West Yorkshire,

England,

LS22 6RF.