Historical Information about Egerton Ladies Choir
EGERTON LADIES CHOIR
Copy of Secretary’s Report for the year ending Feb. 25th 1946
Secretary – Mrs Frances Slack
Copy of Secretary’s Report for the year ending Feb. 25th 1946
Secretary – Mrs Frances Slack
For the
benefit of the new members, perhaps it would be of interest, to give a short
resume of the history of the choir.
Miss Worsley came to see me one day early in 1940 and to my surprise, asked if I would assist her to form a Ladies Choir. I promised to do my best as I was surely interested in the project.
The result was that a choir was started in May 1940, nearly six years ago.
The rehearsals were held on Monday evenings in Miss Worsley’s music room, by the kind permission of her mother, at Fern Bank, Egerton Road, Whitefield, from which we later took the name of the choir.
Mrs Worsley was one of the original members and continued to be, until she passed away.
At the outset, we had ten members, four of whom are still with us, Mrs Russell and Mrs Wigglesworth along with Mrs Bamber and myself.
(Accompanist – Miss Worsley then Mrs Hampson for a time)
We carried on until September when the blackout and raids made it impossible to meet, we postponed rehearsal for a time.
We resumed the following March with 9 members, having our rehearsals in the afternoons, with Miss Worsley conducting and accompanying, but after a time we obtained an efficient accompanist in Mr Wigglesworth. In those days, we took things very seriously, and did a certain amount of theory.
Mrs Bentley and Mrs Jackson joined us at this time, so are amongst the oldest members.
The Choir has carried on with no further break ever since, though the war caused losses to our members in various ways, but in spite of that, increases have been shown at the end of each year, until there are now 26 members in all.
We even had an evacuee in 1941, Mrs Smellie from London.
Mrs Bamber of Pinfold Lane joined us in that year, and lent us her nice large room with grand piano. She eventually took up some war work, so back we went to Egerton Road.
As the choir was growing, we decided that we must expand in other ways, so we had our first General Meeting in January 1942, when we decided to form a Committee, to give the Choir a name, and advertise for new members. We advertised in the Guide and covered the cost by each member contributing a shilling from which we had results.
Our first advertising was done by cards printed by Mr Slack and put in shops in Prestwich and Whitefield.
Perhaps I should say here that so far we had had no expenses, each member buying her own music, and through the kindness of our friends, principally Mrs Worsley and Mrs Bamber, but no rent to pay.
The First Committee Meeting voted a weekly subscription of 6d per week to cover any expenses apart from music. This built up a fund in preparation for renting a room, which was becoming necessary.
The Subscriptions have been altered from time to time to suit circumstances.
A room at Besses Congregational Church was eventually engaged.
The Choir gave its first Concert at the Mental Hospital in April 1942, and has fulfilled 49 engagements, both sacred and secular, visiting hospitals, home, churches and even gaols. Seventeen programmes were produced last year, some being double events as at Heap Bridge Church and at Strangeways. Several of the members assisted with the “Messiah” at Besses, also.
From some of the Churches we have received generous gifts.
Miss Greenway has now been with us for nearly three years and we appreciate her valuable services. She was the organist at Besses for many years and was a member of the Halle Choir.
The membership for the past year began with 24 members and ended with 26, having lost 4 nd gained 6, and showing an average per meeting of 16.8 (44 attendances).
Records of all programmes and reports if any have been kept for future reference.
We have advertised several times mostly with results, recently in the Radcliffe Times. The Library has been going for a year and is becoming nicely established.
The year on the whole has been a successful one and thoroughly enjoyable, the visit to the Opera House making a very good Finale.
PS The choir was named after Egerton Road in Whitefield as this was where the original rehearsal first took place but Egerton Road was named after the Egerton family (The Earls of Wilton) whose family seat was Heaton Hall, the beautiful mansion which stands in Heaton Park and it is an interesting fact that the choir now rehearse in Heaton Park Methodist Church, which is facing the park.
Miss Worsley came to see me one day early in 1940 and to my surprise, asked if I would assist her to form a Ladies Choir. I promised to do my best as I was surely interested in the project.
The result was that a choir was started in May 1940, nearly six years ago.
The rehearsals were held on Monday evenings in Miss Worsley’s music room, by the kind permission of her mother, at Fern Bank, Egerton Road, Whitefield, from which we later took the name of the choir.
Mrs Worsley was one of the original members and continued to be, until she passed away.
At the outset, we had ten members, four of whom are still with us, Mrs Russell and Mrs Wigglesworth along with Mrs Bamber and myself.
(Accompanist – Miss Worsley then Mrs Hampson for a time)
We carried on until September when the blackout and raids made it impossible to meet, we postponed rehearsal for a time.
We resumed the following March with 9 members, having our rehearsals in the afternoons, with Miss Worsley conducting and accompanying, but after a time we obtained an efficient accompanist in Mr Wigglesworth. In those days, we took things very seriously, and did a certain amount of theory.
Mrs Bentley and Mrs Jackson joined us at this time, so are amongst the oldest members.
The Choir has carried on with no further break ever since, though the war caused losses to our members in various ways, but in spite of that, increases have been shown at the end of each year, until there are now 26 members in all.
We even had an evacuee in 1941, Mrs Smellie from London.
Mrs Bamber of Pinfold Lane joined us in that year, and lent us her nice large room with grand piano. She eventually took up some war work, so back we went to Egerton Road.
As the choir was growing, we decided that we must expand in other ways, so we had our first General Meeting in January 1942, when we decided to form a Committee, to give the Choir a name, and advertise for new members. We advertised in the Guide and covered the cost by each member contributing a shilling from which we had results.
Our first advertising was done by cards printed by Mr Slack and put in shops in Prestwich and Whitefield.
Perhaps I should say here that so far we had had no expenses, each member buying her own music, and through the kindness of our friends, principally Mrs Worsley and Mrs Bamber, but no rent to pay.
The First Committee Meeting voted a weekly subscription of 6d per week to cover any expenses apart from music. This built up a fund in preparation for renting a room, which was becoming necessary.
The Subscriptions have been altered from time to time to suit circumstances.
A room at Besses Congregational Church was eventually engaged.
The Choir gave its first Concert at the Mental Hospital in April 1942, and has fulfilled 49 engagements, both sacred and secular, visiting hospitals, home, churches and even gaols. Seventeen programmes were produced last year, some being double events as at Heap Bridge Church and at Strangeways. Several of the members assisted with the “Messiah” at Besses, also.
From some of the Churches we have received generous gifts.
Miss Greenway has now been with us for nearly three years and we appreciate her valuable services. She was the organist at Besses for many years and was a member of the Halle Choir.
The membership for the past year began with 24 members and ended with 26, having lost 4 nd gained 6, and showing an average per meeting of 16.8 (44 attendances).
Records of all programmes and reports if any have been kept for future reference.
We have advertised several times mostly with results, recently in the Radcliffe Times. The Library has been going for a year and is becoming nicely established.
The year on the whole has been a successful one and thoroughly enjoyable, the visit to the Opera House making a very good Finale.
PS The choir was named after Egerton Road in Whitefield as this was where the original rehearsal first took place but Egerton Road was named after the Egerton family (The Earls of Wilton) whose family seat was Heaton Hall, the beautiful mansion which stands in Heaton Park and it is an interesting fact that the choir now rehearse in Heaton Park Methodist Church, which is facing the park.