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Mellingriffith Brass Band

Band,
Pop and Brass

The Melingriffith Brass Band of the Melingriffith Tin Plate Works of Whitchurch, Cardiff, south Wales was one of the best known music ensembles in South Wales in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is also arguably Wales's oldest, originally established in 1798 as a Drum and Fife Band to "assist the recruitment of a Company of Volunteers to fight against the French, who were threatening to invade Britain." With the 13th Glamorgan Rifle Volunteers Corporation, in 1850 it became a full brass band and led by T.W. Booker and would practice in the New Houses, a row of workers cottages at the works. In the 1860s and 1870s the band was known as "Booker's Band" but it appears that the band was subject to splitting and by the 1880s and 1890s "The Volunteer Band", "The Temperance Band" and "The