Tickets for the special matinée were 2/6d, 5/- and 10/6d in the royal balcony. Amongst the artists performing before HRH The Duke of York (later King George VI) that afternoon at The Regent, were “The Merry Arcadians”, D'Albert, boy ventriloquist, and Whitby Norton’s 8-piece Grand Orchestra.
The Regent on Bradford’s busy Manningham Lane was less than six years old at the time of the Gala Show in 1920. My Greatgrandfather’s brother’s Regent Grand Orchestra was a very popular local attraction. They played regularly at The Regent with Whitby leading on violin, and were also available for concerts, receptions and dances.
Whitby, who went on to lead the Bradford Philharmonic Orchestra, was by no means the only professional musician in the family. Older brother Haydn, my greatgrandfather, was an oboist, and sister Emilie, the eldest of the three, taught singing. All three were Professors of Music. They were born in Eccleshill, to the east of Bradford in West Yorkshire, the children of Samuel Norton, a clothier, or maker of cloth, and Mary Whitby. (See Woolworkers of Eccleshill for more on Samuel's family.) There had been an older sister, Hannah, and a younger brother, John, however they both died as infants.
Samuel Norton was himself quite a musician, for in his will he leaves his piano to daughter Emily, and his best violin to son Whitby.
James Norton, a cousin and son of Samuel’s older brother Joseph, was also a professional musician, as was his violinist son, Auber.
Haydn Norton married Margaret Hannah Midgley in the nearby town of Keighley in 1895. He was 31 and she was 24.
Margaret was the eldest of the seven children of William Midgley and Rhoda Anne Lister. Her siblings were named: Charles Henry, James Louis, William, John, Herbert and Thomas.
It seems likely that Haydn and Margaret met through music, for her father was also a Professor of Music. At that time, although Keighley was some eight miles to the North west of Bradford, music lovers would frequently walk between the two to attend an evening’s concert.
As well as teaching music, William Midgley also manufacturer pianos. Along with his sons Charles Henry and John, he worked out of premises in Riddlesden, to the east of Keighley. The family business is listed in various trade directories between 1896 and 1914. This would have been at the height of the piano’s popularity, when many homes owned one.
However, the Midgleys were not only skilled musicians and craftsmen, they were also inventors. In 1910 they patented the Midgley Screw Tuning system both in England and in Germany. Both Charles Henry and John Midgley had been engineers before joining their father at the Riddlesden works, and it seems likely that their engineering skills would have been used in the design of the tuning system.
William and his sons were not the only Midgley musical inventors – the Castle House Museum in Keighley houses a double-slide contrabass trombone, patented by a John Midgley, John Sugden and William Clapham, and made by Besson & Co., London, in 1861. It seems likely that this is William’s older brother John who was also a Professor of Music and owned a music shop Keighley High Street. It’s said that there was only one of these trombones made, and that a family member played it at the Albert Hall in London. Apparently only one he and one other local musical luminary were able to master it.
William and John’s parents were Charles Midgley, a boot and shoemaker, and Hannah Carrodus, a grocer’s daughter. Charles and Hannah married in 1822 and had at least ten children in the following 23 years. The Carrodus’ also carried musical genes, for Hannah’s father John was also the Greatgrandfather of John Tiplady Carrodus the famous violinist and composer who led the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Covent Garden Italian Opera Orchestra.
Back to Bradford in 1932. In January a 45-minute concert by the Bradford Philharmonic Orchestra is broadcast on the National Programme, relayed from the Midland Hotel, Bradford. By now the glory days of popular concert going have come to an end (presumably because of the widespread availability of radio). In February, Whitby’s “Phil”, which had been largely recruited from the former Bradford Permanent Orchestra, gets a reprieve from being disbanded. Despite having its endowment of 1,500 pounds withdrawn, they play on at The Theatre Royal.
Woolworkers of Eccleshill
Norton famly tree