I WAS very interested to see your piece about the formation of the Wingates Band and the installation of a blue plaque in Wingates Square.

The band was originally known as the Wingates Temperance Band and only lost “Temperance” 20 or so years ago.

Ironically, it then received sponsorship from a brewery before becoming associated with Warburtons.

It’s home for some decades was the Wingates Independent Methodist Church, originally organised in 1819, erecting a chapel in Th’ Square in 1835 and building a new chapel in Dixon Street in 1871 which remained until the sad disbanding of the church fellowship and the demolition of the church about 15 years ago.

The band was formed in 1873 from members of its Bible Class and Temperance Class in 1873 as reflected in the title of the book you mentioned, “From Bible Class to World Class”, by David Kay, not merely “the musicians used to rehearse” in a chapel.

It was the 1871 to circa 2000 church in which the band was formed so I was surprised to read “used to rehearse in one of the village’s independent Methodist chapels which it bought in 1896 for £60”, then demolished and “rebuilt in 1930 as a permanent home for the band”. This does not quite fit with the known history of the church. I wonder if what they bought was the building the I M Church had left 25 years previously?

The band’s website — http://www.wingatesband.co.uk/#/about-us/4526690768 — entitled “Welcome to Wingates Square” is surprisingly brief about its history and does not say where it presently meets, but the blue plaque implies that it still has its home in Th’ Square.

W D Collier Bolton