Centenary Square, Bradford, BD1 1HY
Open every Saturday from 10am to 3pm
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A Musical History:
The Brass Band
& The Police
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A Musical History: The Brass Band and The Police is an online exploration of how a long tradition of a musical tradition was established within British policing.
Through photographs, figurines and historical objects, this exhibition examines the role of music, power and people, drawing together Bradford City Police into a wider national and global story.
In Context: The Beginning in Britain and Beyond
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Drawing upon a long-standing cultural tradition in the country, the first Brass Band run by a Police Force was established in the Metropolitan Forces in 1859.
The early brass band movement began at the end of the Napoleonic wars, through the influence of returning veterans. It was however the emergence of industrialization, and the encouragement of upper-class sponsors to improve working class ‘respectability’. Brass band membership became immensely popular with working class men across the UK.
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With the brass band positive associations with strong masculinity and local community it is perhaps unsurprising that the past-time became popular among policing. Not only effective in boosting police morale, the musical tradition could improve working-class perceptions of the force. By the 20th century almost all major British cities had a police band, acting as effective emotive and symbolic fixtures to improve Policing’s image and encourage national pride.
In addition, the tradition had spread across the British Empire and Commonwealth, shaped directly by British culture and attitudes at the time. These brass bands represented more than what they had in the homeland context. Recontextualized across colonies, loud, masculine and forceful, they asserted a European religious and military 'superiority' over the local 'inferior' populations.
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© The Bradford Police Museum
In this way, the City Police Band was an effective instrument, not only for improving trust in police but in mobilizing national pride. This is particularly evident during the war years. Bradford City Police composed songs like "Our Soldiers and Sailors" for local concerts and, as shown below, was central in sounding the call to arms in Market Street during WW2.
Across the next 70 years the brass band became a beloved fixture with the Bradford public, performing in parades, local concerts and charity events. Notably, in 1910 Bradford City Police Band performed at the Proclamation Ceremony of King George VI.​​​
© The Bradford Police Museum
Close to Home: The Establishment of The Bradford​ City Police Band
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The Bradford City Police Band was founded in 1899, performing in public for the first time in 1902. Presented the same year to conductor A. H. Chapman, the handsomely preserved conductor’s baton pictured below, symbolically represents Bradford City Police’s civic and musical contribution since the Band’s inception.​
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© The Bradford Police Museum
© The Bradford Police Museum
Farewell to Bradford City Police Band
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In 1974, the Leeds and Bradford forces amalgamated to form the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police and the two police bands combined to create the West Yorkshire Police Band. In lieu of this, a final record, “Farewell to Bradford City Police Band” was made (see above).
For many locals this shift marked an end of the established local policing identity and the community ‘bobby’ figure. For the columnist featured in the newspaper clipping pictured below, the end of the Bradford City Police Band symbolically encapsulated this. He argued that the force was a “victim of the big-is-best philosophy” and looked back fondly to the annual police band concerts when “policemen were still members of the municipal ‘family.’”.
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© The Bradford Police Museum
A Musical Tradition Continued
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Whilst there has indeed been a number of changes to the police force through the years, a strong musical tradition in the force continues.
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Today West Yorkshire Police Band remains a significant feature in the force, frequently performing in community, civic and ceremonial events. See West Yorkshire Band Figurines pictured.
The band has also expanded. In addition to serving police officers, it now draws from the wider police family, retired police officers and members of the public.​
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© The Bradford Police Museum
© The Bradford Police Museum
This exhibition was made possible thanks to the dedication of our volunteer curatorial team.​
Originally developed as a Temporary Exhibition, this is the first digitalization project written and designed by Curatorial and Research Volunteer Tia Khodabocus.
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See our Curator's Corner for more histories, including a deep dive into the conductor's baton featured in this exhibition.
​We appreciate your interest in our museum and look forward to welcoming you in person soon!
© The Bradford Police Museum
© The Bradford Police Museum
A Bradford PC's first week doing Traffic Duty in the 1950s
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"A wonderful tour of duty 9 am to 5 pm, this was great. I was shown traffic duty, which I had never done. Along with another officer I went to a traffic point duly dressed in my white gloves and white cuffs. He went on to the trafic point first and I had to observe what he did. I then moved into the centre of the road and stood behind him. This point was the centre one of three so I had to work along with the other two point duty men. It caused problems if this was not done properly. Being the kind officer that he was he waited till he thought that the heaviest of the traffic had gone, then he put me in position. I thought that I was conspicuous when I put on my uniform but here I felt that every passing pedestrian and driver was examining what I did with a critical eye....[after a week] I had never known pains in the back to be so severe. If I didn't stand up straight and give good clear signals, the drivers would not see me. Or so they would say if anything went wrong and I was almost under the wheels of the vehicle they were driving"
- W H Copper
A Bradford PC's account of life in Traffic Branch in the 1950s
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"I had a lot to learn. Not forgetting that we were still operating a police vehicle on a patrol and dealing with messages that were transmitted to us. All messages transmitted to our car had to be written in a log book in long hand. Any messages that were passed to all cars also had to be written with the time sent, time completed and the position of the car....Working from traffic branch and attending more incidents certainly gave me more experience of the work of a police officer. A man on the beat in a district out of the city would never come across some of the reports that were dealt with in this division"
- W H Copper
© The Bradford Police Museum
Vespa Motor Scooter at Bolling Road Police Garage in Bradford in the 1950's
© The Bradford Police Museum
The Sunbeam Tiger was used by the Leeds City Police in the 1960s.
© The Bradford Police Museum
© The Bradford Police Museum
A Bradford PC's pride at joining the Traffic Division in the 1950s
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"Back to the police station "you will be going up to the traffic division on Monday, parade there at 8 am". This rang in my ears for the rest of the day, it could not come soon enough for me. My day leave fell on a Sunday so that helped. Go to stores and collect a flat cap and a pair of driving gloves. This was the true insignia of the members of the traffic division but apart from that I was going to be taught how to drive correctly"
- W H Copper
Jaguar Police Cars in the 1960s.