| The Pipe Bands
The first adult pipe band in Newtongrange was the Newbattle
and District Welfare Pipe Band*
founded in 1937 under Pipe Major Scott. Some of the men
at the pit paid 1/2d a week for the band and the Dean Committee
gave a loan of £94 for pipes and drums. This was repaid
by 1944. The band folded in 1950 and the Welfare Committee
tried to reclaim the uniforms and instruments but only one
uniform was ever handed back.
Another pipe band was started up in 1939. Two boys, John
Grant and James Peacock went round all the doors in Newtongrange
asking for names of boys who wanted to join a pipe band.
Forty names were collected and the Newtongrange Juvenile
Pipe Band was formed. Pipe Major Sandy Mclntosh tutored
them and the Dean gave them £150 to buy uniforms -
they wore the shepherd tartan with blue jerkins. Between
1940 and 1948 the boy's pipe band raised £17,000 for
charity and in 1944 won every contest they entered. Three
years in a row, 1948, 1949 and 1950, the band won the World
Juvenile Pipe Band Championship. At 18, some of the boys
were too old to play in juvenile competitions so an adult
band, Newtongrange Lothian Pipe Band, was begun but it was
just the same lads (bar two) under a different name. In
1950 the bands were 1st in the Juvenile, 1st in Grade 3,
1st in Grade 2 and 4th in the Open category, at the Miner's
Gala in Edinburgh. A number of girls joined the band and
later a Girl's Pipe Band was formed.
The Dean Committee gave the Boy's pipe band a loan of £300
to buy new kilts in 1950. The money was not repaid by 1956
and rumours reached the Committee that the pipe band were
selling the uniforms.
The band took an new name in 1954, Lady Victoria Pipe Band,
when an arrangement was made for 1d a week to be collected
from some of the men at the pit. It was no longer a juvenile
band. Since the Lady Vie closed in 1981 the pipe band has
had a connection with Bilston Glen Pit, where the men contribute
3p a week. The band is now called Newtongrange and Bilston
Colliery Pipe Band and is still going strong under Pipe
Major Tom Wilson
His predecessor, Bill Peacock, remembers playing in one
competiton in which eight good pipers were needed. The Lothian
Pipe Band had only seven players good enough to take part
in the competition. The eighth player was OK on the chanter
but forgot all the tunes as soon as he had the pipes under
his oxter. They put him in with dummy reeds so he couldn't
be heard. The judges never knew there was a dummy piper
as they were under cover.
The pipe band used to play round the park after the gala
and then march single file into the Dean and play round
the bar.
* There was a Boy's Brigade
Pipe Band in the 1920s
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