This historic building was opened as Harborne Industrial School in 1903, to provide education, training and care for some of Birmingham’s destitute and neglected children. The origins of the school, and it’s musical tradition, can be traced back to Birmingham’s first Ragged School which was opened in a disused workshop by the Revd Grantham Yorke in 1846. In those early days the school’s aim was to rescue some of the many destitute and seriously undernourished children roaming around the streets of Birmingham and to provide them with a meal and welfare support. These disadvantaged boys and girls were also provided with help to mend their own ragged clothes. Education was a secondary function in the Ragged School and consisted mainly of the three R’s and religious instruction of which singing played only a small part. This very limited introduction to music was perhaps the beginning of the musical tradition which flourished at the school during the following hundred and thirty eight years.
The Revd Yorke’s important venture to help needy children was successful and the Ragged School was soon renamed St Philip’s Free Industrial School. In 1850, the establishment was transferred to a new, more spacious school in Gem Street. Singing, history and geography, were now taught in the Day School ‘‘ as occasional variations in the timetable.``
The aim of the Industrial Department at Gem Street School was twofold – to supplement the school’s income by utilising the skills and labour of the boys, and also to provide the boys with training in occupations that would enable them to earn their livelihood. As part of this scheme the school’s brass band was formed in 1868. It became both proficient and popular in the community and local performances provided the school with some income. In 1872, the band had ten engagements and the gifts and donations received, enabled new instruments to be purchased. The musical training provided at Gem Street School enabled many boys to obtain positions in Army Bands.
However, in the next decade, several changes of bandmaster created difficulties and the band was allowed to lapse. The band was reformed in 1886, and rapidly made good progress. By 1892, the school band was considered ‘‘ competent to fulfil any engagement.`` During the boy’s summer holiday in Aberystwyth, the school band amalgamated with the town band on Marine Parade and entertained holiday makers. The band later obtained numerous, engagements in Birmingham and it’s performances in local parks were widely praised. A beautiful silver-mounted baton was presented to the school band by members of the Birmingham Fire Brigade . At this time, 45 boys were receiving musical training at Gem Street School.
Before 1900, Harry Grainger, a young teacher, was appointed to the staff of Gem Street School as bandmaster – a position he held for more than 47 years. Harry told his pupils that when he was a young man, he had to save his meagre pocket money to buy himself a good cornet. His advice to his pupils was that to play well it was important to have a good instrument. Subsequently, Harry helped many boys to get better instruments by initially purchasing them for his pupils who paid him back by instalments.
In 1903, the establishment moved out of Gem Street into the new Harborne Industrial School, situated in Balden Road. A 1906 photograph of the school band, shows bandmaster Harry Grainger holding his baton, the Superintendent, S.P.T.Kirk in a bowler hat, and 28 boys with their instruments. Is the old drum recently recovered from the Martineau Education Centre loft , the large bass drum shown in the photograph ?
The School Band, 1906.
During this period, for economic reasons, the Governors dispensed with the services of the gardener and the bandmaster, Mr Harry Grainger, had to take over the gardening class. However, during this 3 year period, he retained contact with his pupils as visiting bandmaster , to ensure that the school reed and brass band was not neglected. The boys practiced with their instruments for 3 hours a week and continued to obtain engagements.
The duty of some band members was to rouse the boys in the mornings by bugle, and also to summon the boys together during the day. On church parades and other occasions the whole school marched behind the band. The smart uniforms worn by the band members were generously provided by Messrs. Keep. Bros in 1906.
In 1907, four young band members won the challenge cup in a quartette competition which was open to adults . Bandmaster Harry Grainger, proudly noted that they had beaten ‘‘ no fewer than twelve adult bands, many of them members of Prize bands....one of these boys became the Solo Euphoneum of a Welsh Colliery Prize Band, another became the Solo Cornet of the Kettering Prize Band, a third became Solo Horn in the Kings Royal Rifles. ``
Birmingham Champions 1908.
During the 1914-18 war years, the school routine was seriously disrupted. Many resident 14 year old boys supported the war effort by working in local munitions factories and farms. By the end of 1916, the younger boys at school had been involved in stitching 10,000 bayonet scabbards. When the war ended, 252 old boys had served in the armed forces, two of whom had been awarded the Military Medal, one was mentioned in dispatches, thirty four had been wounded, three had been taken prisoner and sixteen died in the conflict.
During this period an Army Cadet Unit was formed and the Superintendent Kirk was the Commanding officer, with the rank of Captain. The band became part of the cadet unit. However, economies had to be made and once again the band was allowed to lapse. The band was restarted in 1927, when the Governors paid the visiting bandmaster out of the schools private income, to instruct the boys for five hours a week.
In 1932, Harry Grainger, received a very good report from the Musical Director at the Royal Military School of Music , Kneller Hall, on the progress of one of his pupils, Harry lawn. Two years later, The Headmaster, Mr J.H.C. Channing, wrote about the band’s progress ‘‘ I have every reason to be very proud of it’s successes........there are two more of our boys likely to be sent to Kneller Hall.`` Many more members of the school band followed in their footsteps. Mr Channing’s optimism about the band was also confirmed when in 1935, the Tennal School Cadet Corps won the County Championships.
The School Cadet Corps – County Championships, 1935.
Harry Grainger’s band notes for 1936, record that at the Annual Inspection the band was presented with a new leopard skin by Lt. Colonel Newcome. In October, the school band led the Annual Church Parade at the Cathedral, and also the March Past at the Council House. In the same year the band also won the Silver Plated Bugle for the best band in the Warwickshire Cadet Brigade.
The band’s success continued and on 17th, July, 1939, it again led the March Past at the Annual Inspection of the School Corps. The Inspecting Officer, Major B G Fray, Officer Commanding 48th S. M. Division R.A.S.C. { TA.} offered the band two kettledrums which duly arrived at the school in the form of two tenor side drums.
Once again war disrupted the school routine and the boys were recalled from their school holiday in Abergele, on August 24th, 1939. Six days later the school was evacuated to Bourne in Lincolnshire and the Army took charge of Tennal School. The band was discontinued during this unsettled period.
From 17th to 22nd June, 1945, Tennal School participated in ‘Salute the Soldier Week.` The school army cadets and band led the 1st Battalion in a huge parade around the city. Every branch of the Armed forces, the Police, Civil Defence and Youth organizations were represented . The following Monday, a second parade around Harborne was also quite impressive. The band played a selection of light music and marches on the Green near Prince’s Corner, on Wednesday and Friday evenings.
In May,1947, Harry Grainger retired after a long and valued service as bandmaster. The school band was still very active making full use of new instruments, and ‘ ‘ the school choir had improved out of all knowledge.`` Mr Bryant, was appointed as bandmaster but when he became ill in July, Harry Grainger returned in a temporary capacity to support the school band.
During his tenure as bandmaster at Gem Street and Tennal School, Harry Grainger initiated large numbers of boys into a musical career. Several hundreds of them joined Army bands and about half of them attended the College for Army Bandsmen at Kneller Hall . One became the bandmaster of a Horse Regiment. Another was the Band Sergeant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. One served overseas as a cornet player with the Entertainment National Services Association and after the war he became a bandmaster in an Approved School. Many others found positions in town, colliery or works bands. Some of Harry’s ex-pupils wrote to him about their success in other fields. One went to America in 1905, and became became an Officer in the United States Marine Corps. Another employed many men at his own metal spinning works. In the 1930’s, one old boy became an Inspector for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. All of them owed much of their success to Harry Grainger ’s teaching.
On May 13th, 1949, Lord Rowallan , the Chief Scout, was the principal guest at the Tennal School Centenary Celebrations. The Drum and Bugle Band welcomed him with a fanfare in the quadrangle, and the School Brass Band rendered an appropriate musical selection to enhance the festive atmosphere. The evening concert involved several comedy sketches, a Brass Quartette playing ‘‘ Joyous Spring ,``the boy’ s choir sang three songs, and finally a combined staff and boy’ s choir sang ‘‘ My Old Kentucky Home `` and ‘‘ Goodnight Ladies. ``
Music continued to play an important part in school life during the next two decades and the school choir became quite active in the local community. In the 1965, Xmas season, the choir were much involved in carol singing in the neighbourhood, at an old people’ s home run by the Sisters of the Poor, and at a home for Physically Handicapped people in Harborne Road , Edgbaston. They later performed 21 song choruses for the school concert and speech day.
Since it’s inception as the Ragged School in 1846, musical training and appreciation had become well established at Tennal School. At the 1967, Easter Concert, the school choir sang four songs from ‘‘ The Sound of Music.`` Their repertoire also included folk songs and negro spirituals . All the boys who had helped and taken part in the concert were appropriately rewarded with a trip to see ‘‘ The Sound of Music.``
At the School Annual Prize Giving and Speech Day, in November, 1967, the Headmaster, Mr H. Heathcote, paid tribute to members of the Governing Body by pointing out ‘‘ that the requirements, as dictated by the Founder of Tennal School and Pioneer of the Approved School Service, the Reverend Grantham Yorke, are still maintained.``
However, this is no longer the case. In 1984, following the closure of Tennal School, the institution became the Martineau Education Centre, which after 26 years service is also facing closure. Although it currentlystill provides educational services for Birmingham’s children and teachers, it’s important link with the local community has been broken. The long established musical tradition ceased to function when the programme of evening classes available to adults and other community groups was closed down. The Martineau gates are now locked every evening and weekends, depriving the community from access to it’s valuable facilities and stifling musical activity for the first time in 154 years.
The old, Tennal bass drum discovered in the Martineau Education Centre loft is a historical link to the hundreds of young, well trained musicians who were taught to play in the prize winning brass bands that flourished at Tennal School. It represents not only the past, but also the excellent potential of this historic building and of the need to Save the Martineau Education Centre for future generations.
The Martineau Ten stand at the Harborne Carnival, July 2010:
the rescued drum takes centre stage once again.
Percy Lea, former Principal, Tennal School.
On behalf of the Martineau Ten. Help Save the Martineau Centre.
http://www.yourmartineaucampus.co.uk/.
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