The Boys' Brigade

Marching band leads Stowmarket Boys' Brigade parade

On a rainy Sunday, families gather to watch the boys and men of the Stowmarket Boys' Brigade parade from their headquarters to the centre of town, led by their marching band. It was a day for hats and a raincoat over the arm, just in case. The Brigade members file into a church wile the band performs outside. The film was shot by George Wilden who ran a newsagents shop, and the final shots shows magazines in the display rack.

The Boys' Brigade is an inter-denominational Christian youth organisation which was founded in 1883 and became worldwide by the 1890s. George Wilden's films of the Stowmarket company show two activities paritcularly associated with the Brigade, the marching band and camping to maintain contact within the group over the summer months. The Ist Mid Suffolk Boys' Brigade Company at Stowmarket was founded 1891, and met at the Boys' Brigade Hall in Combs Lane from 1912 onwards. In 1991 the Band reformed as the Stowmarket Boys' Brigade Centenary Band.