Brass bands have a long and enduring popularity in Cornwall, and are key institutions for incubating and nurturing musical talent across generations of musicians from their earliest incarnations through to the present day.

The many brass bands Cornwall’s clay country continue to play an important role in community life, featuring heavily at local fairs, carnivals, and celebrations of all kinds.

This section covers bands which have been found in the clay country area – many of which are still performing and competing to a nationally high standard.

As well as the brass bands themselves, the clay country has hosted a wide range of brass band contests – including the famous ‘West of England Bandsman’s Festival’, also known simply as the Bugle Band Contest, which attracts bands from across the region to compete. However, a number of other clay country villages have hosted band contests over the course of the years, drawing crowds of thousands to hear bands coming from near and far to compete in these high points of community life – giving a real indication of the scale and breadth of their popularity in this part of Cornwall.

Performers, composers, arrangers, teachers, singers, dancers; a wide range of musical individuals have been associated with the clay country and we have attempted to bring as many of them together here as possible. Some individuals are well documented; others less so, and there are no doubt individuals we still have yet to list.

Without such a rang of inspirational musicians to foster and develop a musical life in the clay country, no doubt the musical landscape of the clay country would be very different.

A number of the individuals and groups have recorded their music in different ways – on CD, vinyl and cassette. In this section you can find pages including recordings and sleeve note for a range of these, for which we’re hugely grateful to Chris Trevena and his Sounds Like Cornwall project.

Choirs and choral groups also have a long history in the clay country area – many of which have been associated with clay companies themselves. However, there are a range of groups across the years which have provided an important means for people living in the clay area to sing and hear vocal music of all kinds.

From hymn tunes named after local villages, to a song cycle written by Richard Gendall, musical settings of Jack Clemo’s poetry, and marches written for the West of England Bandsman’s Festival – the clay country has been the inspiration for a wide range of musical pieces and tunes.

We hope you enjoy reading through the articles on Music From The Clay Country – we’ve endeavoured to represent a range and breadth of music and people from across the area, but we’re sure that there will be further information, and other people, bands, contests, traditional musics, tunes – and so much more – still to add.

Musical Inspirations: In this article we’ve gathered together a vibrant mix of musical people, items, and places from the clay country – some of which we’re still looking for more information on. If you can help us fill in the blanks or add something to the musical map, please get in touch!

Can you help? If you have information or an article you’d like to write, please get in touch with us or registering and writing up an article to be included. We want the archive to continue growing so it’s not too late!

The aim of the project is to gather together information regarding music in the clay country and provide a legacy of free resources and information that will be useful for musicians, students, teachers, and anyone interested in music from the clay country.  The genres on which we have concentrated are brass bands, choirs and traditional players. We’ve endeavoured to represent a really broad sweep of music and traditions but of course, there will always be more to record and we will keep doing so into the future, continuing to build on the work so far and make the project as comprehensive as possible.
We also wanted to help foster awareness and engagement with clay country music – so the team have also been visiting communities giving workshops and including Bugle Youth and Preschool Club, Liskeard School, and a programme of talks for community groups including a range of Old Cornwall Societies.

The project has been undertaken by members of the CNMA team with the help of a range of musicians, community members, researchers and others who have provided information and photographs, to whom we are hugely grateful. These include the China Clay History Society, Barry Hawken of Imery’s Mid Cornwall Male Choir, Chris Trevena at Sounds Like Cornwall, Sue Ford and all the team at Wheal Martyn Clay Works, and many others. Finally, this project would not have been possible without support from FEAST and the Cornwall Community Foundation, the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, and Gorsedh Kernow – all whom supported this project, and also to the Cornwall Heritage Trust for their overall support of the CNMA project.

We will celebrate the project with an event bringing together clay country music and musicians at possible the most appropriate venue possible: The Wheal Martyn Clay Works at Carthew. The event will be taking place on Saturday the 9th July 2022, when some of the talents of the Clay Country were on display. Check back soon for images and recordings from the day.

We are grateful to acknowledge FEAST, the Cornwall Community Foundation, the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, and Gorsedh Kernow for their support in this project.

The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies