Nev Meek, President of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies and Gerrans and Portscatho Old Cornwall Society’s Recorder, brings us the story of a Roseland Wind Band.
When she finally took up permanent residence in St Anthony village on the Roseland in Cornwall, Jennet Campbell, always looking to provide opportunities for the young to make music together, was determined to set up a youth band. While an evacuee in America during the Second World War, she had taken up the flute and caught her love of ensemble playing in the Swarthmore Band, a mix of woodwind, brass and percussion.
Jennet read English at university before studying the flute at the Guildhall. She recalled Francis, a drawer at the Boar’s Head Tavern at Eastcheap in Shakespeare’s Henry IV part ii, sending for ‘Sneak’s Noyse’ as ‘Mistress Tearsheet would fain hear some music’. So the community youth wind-band she founded in 1978/9 was given the name ‘St Anthony’s Noyse’. She decided The Noyse should have a simple uniform of jeans and a sweatshirt with the band’s name and logo. The serpent, a gloriously curvaceous ancient hybrid of brass and woodwind played since the 16th century in church ensembles and bands, was the obvious choice for the logo.
Jennet was a tireless teacher (free of charge) and spent a lot of time in Gerrans School introducing children to an assortment of instruments. As soon as they could produce three notes, she would write parts for them and they were drafted into the Noyse. Simple early arrangements included the Cornish tunes Falmouth Polka, Trewince March, and the Furry Dance. In their heyday the band had well in excess of thirty players at their Saturday morning rehearsals. These were mainly children between the ages of eight and, generally, mid-teens (when they would acquire other interests), with one or two adults thrown in. Richard Sharp played the tuba, Jude Tomlinson the bassoon, and Suki Sharp took over the euphonium from her daughter Katherine when she left. Peter Campbell would guest on drums at times.
The early members included Barny & Dominic Nicholls, Adam Foley, Gary Boyce, Helen Fowler, Andrew Bowcock, Body Pemberton, Katherine & Emily Sharp, and John & Joanne Wood. The band had loads of gigs in those days and were very popular at fetes and the like as they always had lots of followers in the form of parents, siblings etc, who could be relied on to spend plenty of money.
As the numbers at the school dwindled, and Jennet grew less active, so the band started to shrink. Currently the band consists of a handful of senior players, and they are eager to recruit new blood! The band has a varied repertoire which has a few Cornish pieces including, Trelawney, White Rose, Flora Dance and Camborne Hill. It still appears regularly at Lifeboat services on the Lugger in Portscatho and in St Mawes, at village fetes and events and for carol singing all over the Roseland.
Note: Richard Sharp & Emma Campbell provided the information for this account.