Much Wenlock were pleased to welcome Barrow Male Voice Choir from Cumbria to the town on Saturday 30th September in a joint concert at the William Brookes School. Barrow choir were invited to pay us a visit after our choir visited the lake district in 2015 and met up with Barrow for a joint concert in Grange-Over-Sands.
Barrow is the last remaining traditional male voice choir in the area surrounding Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, an industrial town of of over sixty thousand inhabitants with a proud history of shipbuilding and the town is still home to Vickers, a major company involved in building submarines. The choir was founded in 1931 from members of Barrow Working Men’s Club & Institute and currently performs around fifteen concerts a year. In recent years the choir was represented at the Festival of Sound and Brass, held in London’s Royal Albert Hall and in 2010 hosted the Wagga City Rugby Male Choir from Australia whose singers included the former Barrow and Great Britain Rugby League star Phil Jackson.
The choirs Musical Director Deborah Milledge took over the role following the death of the choir’s previous conductor, her husband Anthony, in February this year and has since led the choir to victory in South Cumbria Musical Festival in April. She also conducts another prize-winning choir – the Ghyll Singers women’s choir, based in Ulverston – and plays first trombone in Dalton Town Band, Dalton-in-Furness.