[downtown]

I was in Accrington Reference Library on Friday researching 'string bands' in Lancashire and after searching on the computer found your website. The following information is from Stanhill Village website and maybe helpful.

In an extract from ‘Old Homesteads of Accrington and District’ by Richard Ainsworth published in 1928 a reference is made to church musicians. “A time-honoured custom, celebrated every year on the first Sunday in May, is the charity sermons at Stanhill, really the Sunday School Anniversary known far and wide as Stanhill Fair. The school children parade the village in their best attire, sing in front of Stanhill Hall and at various points in the village, accompanied by a string band-surely reminiscent of days when the cello, flute and violin were the accompaniment of old-time Psalm and sacred song.X