Sheviock Orchestra (Photo: Ian Whittaker)

 

“Sheviock Orchestra seems to have operated at the same time as the brass band (early 1900s) but whereas ladies couldn’t be members of the band, the photo shows they were able to play stringed instruments. At least two of my great aunts played string instruments as did my great uncle and grandfather (who were also in the brass band). A viola and a violin still exist, or did some years ago. We were told by the person who repaired one of them that it was made in Germany prior to the First World War. After that war, only the dance band survived, or so I have been told, but the demise of that is another story.” (Ian Whittaker)

“The photo suggests that the orchestra was heavy with brass but short of players in the other sections. Bearing in mind that the vicar who was the inspiration behind the music left the area around the end of the First World War I am reasonably sure that the orchestra photo is also from the same period as the brass band – just prior to the war. I was told that the only music after the war was the ill-fated dance band. Ill-fated because another great aunt, the viola player in the orchestra, was the pianist and it seems that she wouldn’t play the new dance tunes which presumably was what the dancers wanted. That led to its demise. Incidentally, in the 1950s I did hear her play a piano. It must have been awkward for her to do as, when she was a child, she had apparently, caught her fingers in a mangle. Her third finger on her left hand was permanently damaged and while the knuckle was ok she couldn’t move anything beyond that.” (Ian Whittaker)