__NOTOC__ The Dinnington Colliery Band is a traditional British brass band from

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

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, founded in 1904 and also known as the ''Dinnington Main and Middleton prize brass band'' for some of its history. Between 1982 and 1985 the band was sponsored by South Yorkshire Caravans, and 1987–1990 by Webster Mining Machinery. The band currently compete in the Third Section of the Yorkshire Region. The Dinnington Colliery Band consisted of 35 members aged between 7 and 80 from the former

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

town of Dinnington in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England. As in many traditional British mining towns, once the colliery closed in 1992 the band went into decline, ending up with only six members by 2009. In 2010, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

chose Dinnington from a shortlist of 22 other brass bands to feature in a three-part series A Band For Britain presented and conducted by

Sue Perkins Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969) is an English actress, broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in ''Mel and Sue'', she progressed into radio a ...

. The recruitment drive that followed enabled the band to enlist 21 new members, and a resulting recording contract worth £1 million secured the band's future survival. As of 2014, the band are actively fundraising to represent Yorkshire in the National Finals in Cheltenham in September. Despite popular misconceptions that the band received payment for taking part in 'A Band for Britain', this was not the case, and they face the same financial challenges as other brass bands, and indeed other registered charities. The £100,000 payment from their CD 'A Band for Britain' is currently held in a fund towards the building of a new band room.

Discography

Albums

* 2010: ''A Band For Britain''

References

{{reflist

External links

The Dinnington Colliery Band Official Site
British brass bands Musical groups established in 1904 Dinnington, South Yorkshire Music in South Yorkshire