Historically, Golborne was a market town whose main industries where those of mining and cotton. The name ‘Golborne’ is thought to originate from ‘golde and burna’, which was mentioned as long ago as 969AD. ‘Golde’, being suggestive of the yellow flowers which grew along the village’s ‘burna’ or boundary.

The early history of Golborne Band

The Golborne Brass Band is one of the oldest ‘village’ Bands in the country, and was originally formed in 1867. We have a photograph in the 1880’s of the founder band.

In 1914 the Band ceased to exist because of the First World War and was not in a position to reform until 1922 at which time the name changed to ‘Golborne Public Subscription Band’.

The Band was again disbanded at the start of the second world war and did not reform until 1950 under the baton of James Mort and the Band won its first prize at the Rhyl contest in 1955. Many prizes followed under the guidance of James, so the band changed its name in to Golborne Prize Band. Following James’ death in 1965, Joe Houlton took over the baton and success continued in the 3rd and 4th sections of the movement. During this time, as the Band did not have a permanent home of their own, at various times, most of the pubs in Golborne housed the band.

Recent history

In 1984, we bought our first Bandroom. The band then had a permanent home and this lead to even greater success. The band was promoted to the 2nd section in 1986 and won several contests in this division under the baton of Geoff Williams. In 1990 the band toured Holland and in 1994 toured France. Unfortunately, in 2002, the Bandroom was condemned  and the band moved into its’ current home in the Church Lane Community Centre on Church Lane, Lowton.

In March 2011 the band made history as,  under the baton of Jason M Smith, they qualified for the National Brass Band Finals of Great Britain, which were held at Cheltenham in September 2011, . The band continued this success a year later when, under the baton of Paul Andrews, they gained 1st place at the 2012 Area Finals, and were crowned ‘4th Section North West Area Champions’, . As a result of this success, the band were promotion to the 3rd Section.

Their last contest in the 4th section, was a second trip to the National Brass Band Finals of Great Britain at Cheletenham. The band improved their score from the previous year and were awarded an excellent 4th place. The band then moved up to the 3rd section where they would compete with a higher standard of bands. The first of these contests was in 2013 in the Area Finals at Blackpool, where, with their new MD Mathew Whitfield, the Band were awarded a very solid 10th place. This 10th place from a total of 17 Bands that had entered, meant that the Band had quickly established themselves in this section as a Band that was going in the right direction.