[nholme]

Thanks all. This is starting to get interesting. I may have to expand my history of the band around the early 1900's to include a more general history of bands in the area at that time - depends what I can unearth - but the existence of concertina bands is a start. Can I use your photo Retlaw if it's appropriate?

My brother-in-law played concertina for years with a sword dancing team called the "Hoghton Rappers". This is a very specialised form of country dance that uses double handed swords to form patterns. They don't wear clogs but ordinary shoes and have a sort of shuffling step a bit like a tap step where the sole of the shoe hits the ground to set up a rhythm. I wonder how prevalent concertina playing was in the area at the time. I tried dancing with them once but I'm not the shape, lol.