Press
Middleton Musical Society, Middleton Girls' Choir
Co op Hall Middleton
1955

“I was interested to encounter this newspaper report when searching the web for "Middleton Musical Society". My late father, Frank Reddish was a long-time member of the Society. He was treasurer for more years than he might have liked and was also, for a time, the Musical Director. Your entry for the Society confirms that the Society was founded in the 18th century. It may have been one of the first choral societies in the country. In his book "Leisure and Society" Professor James Walvin says (quite wrongly, I believe) that "by the late 19th century there were thousands of [chral societies] but their numbers belied their relatively recent history. They emerged rapidly from obscure origins. The first mention of a Yorkshire choral society was in Halifax in 1817; the next in Bradford in 1821". Lancashire deserves better than this.”

“I should also have pointed out that the celebrated soloists named in your summary of the Society were not members of it but paid celebrity soloists attracted by the considerable reputation of the Society in the fifties and early sixties. My father's great friend James Hyde did much to establish this. Some of the names mentioned in the 1955 press cutting (from the Middleton Guardian) are familiar to me - particularly Marjorie Crossley and Irene Yates - but possibly for the wrong reasons.”