About Us

We are a community music group constituted in 2004 to research and perform music of the West Gallery period, the early eighteenth to late nineteenth centuries, in Bedfordshire and the neighbouring counties. We have no religious affiliation and members are of all faiths and none.

We perform in costume representing what might have been worn by our counterparts in Bedford around 1810—1830 singing three and four part harmony in the ‘conventional voices’ of Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass accompanied by instruments of the period.

In Bedford there was a church band and choir in the Three Ridges Chapel which is now called the Bunyan Meeting Free Church.  They left a legacy of manuscripts of the metrical psalms, hymns, anthems, and carols which they performed.  This, together with other Bedfordshire collections, forms the core of our repertoire but also included are some West Gallery pieces from other parts of the country and music from the shape-note tradition of North America.

We have been fortunate to have been awarded a grant from The National Lottery through Awards for All to pursue our aim of bringing this forgotten music back to the local communities of Bedfordshire and the surrounding area.

Our performances include (but are not limited to) concerts, workshops and educational events.  Once a year we do a tour of churches or chapels visiting around four over the course of a day and singing for an hour or so in each.  Though guests are welcome this event is principally for our own pleasure, that is to say, for the joy of bringing the rich musical heritage of Bedford and the surrounding area back to where it originated.