Where we rehearse...
We now rehearse every Monday evening in term time at Springdale Methodist Church, Warstones Road, Penn, Wolverhampton WV4 4LF from 7.30pm to 9.30pm.
How to find our rehearsal venue...

The rehearsal is taken by our Musical Director, Edd Caine and the accompanist is (to be announced).

New members are always welcome...
New singers are always welcome to the choir.
For more information, contact our Membership Secretary, Eileen Brown at eileenbrown31@talktalk.net or on 01902 892391. more >>

Join our new Youth Choir !
It’s all about singing… and at 93 years old, Wombourne & District Choral Society (WDCS) is still going strong – because singing is so good for you!

But to remain strong and to ensure that we’re here for another 90 years, we are starting Wombourne Youth Choir. So if you like singing, or even if you haven’t sung before but you would like to give it a go, and you’re somewhere between 13 and 21, then this is for you!

Weekly rehearsals will start in September on Mondays during term-time from 6.00pm to 7.00pm at Springdale Methodist Church, Warstones Road, Penn, Wolverhampton WV4 4LF.

Lead by Musical Director, Edd Caine, rehearsals will always be fun, giving opportunities for members to sing large scale choral works with experienced singers and a full orchestra, gaining experience in choral singing, supporting language learning by singing in different languages, gaining confidence singing in front of an audience, expanding your choral repertoire and learning about composers old and new.

Open to anyone who wants to take part and develop their interest in singing, there will no audition and it doesn’t matter if you haven’t done any singing before ( though if you have, that would be great! ). There will be no entrance or membership fee initially as full support is coming from WDCS but there may be a membership subscription at a later date once the Youth Choir is firmly established, in order to cover rehearsal room hire, concert and other expenses.

So what are you waiting for?
For further information or to enrol please contact Henry Ibberson on 07775 680705, email: ibberson@uwclub.net or Eileen Brown on 01902 892391, email: eileenbrown31@talktalk.net or send us a message via our web-site www.wombournechoralsociety.org

Go on give it a go! We can’t wait to hear from you!

The History of our choir...

Musical Directors through the years:

Harry England: 1929 - 1942

Patricia Groves: 1942 - 1958

Dennis Powell: 1958 - 1993

David Parkes: 1993 - 2006

Ian Clarke: 2006 - 2021

Dr. Edward Caine: 2021 -

History of Wombourne & District Choral Society

The choir, originally called the Wombourne Choral Society, was founded in 1929 by Harry England. Formerly a professional baritone, he had been headmaster of Enville School near Kinver, and organist of Enville Church. Following Harry’s death in 1942 in his late eighties, Miss Groves, head of music at the Technical High School, became the choir’s second conductor. She left the district in 1958 and was then succeeded by Dennis Powell who remained the conductor until 1993. (At some stage the original Wombourne Choral Society changed its name to Wombourne and District to reflect the fact that many of its members come from much further afield.)

The rehearsal venue was originally the Wesleyan Chapel, now the United Reformed Church, in Wombourne’s centre, where the first concert under Dennis Powell took place. The main work was Edward German’s ‘Merrie England’. Later the rehearsal venue moved to the Church School, Wombourne. It was decided that the choir should become an evening class, initially under Sedgley Evening Institute’s wing, but later under Staffordshire Education Committee. This lasted until the choir moved to Springdale Junior School, Wolverhampton, when we were adopted by Wolverhampton Education Committee. Several years later, independence was resumed.

Under Dennis Powells’ tenure, the choir developed to become essentially the choir it has become today. It accompanied the Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra in many large scale works, including Vaughan-Williams’s ‘Sea Symphony’, Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’ and ‘Music Makers’, Tippet’s ‘A Child Of Our Time’, Constant Lambert’s ‘Rio Grande’, JS Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passions’? and ‘B Minor Mass’ and Handel’s ‘Messiah’. Dennis also conducted the choir in a number of smaller works by less well known composers, such as Moeran, Finzi and Poulenc.

When Dennis Powell retired in 1993, David Parkes became the fourth conductor and the choir continued to go from strength to strength. Well-established favourites were mixed with challenges such as Honegger’s ‘Christmas Cantata?’ There were ambitious large-scale performances, notably the Verdi ‘Requiem’ and Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’ both in Wolverhampton Civic Hall, the latter with Paul Nilon as an overwhelming Gerontius, Brahms’s ‘A German Requiem’ in Dudley Town Hall with Denise Leigh as soloist. Summer concerts became well-established, giving us opportunities to explore a lighter repertoire including virtual excursions to Broadway.David also led us on a real excursion to France in 2003, starting a fascinating musical and social association with Chantemoy choir from Orléans. This was followed by a return visit from Chantemoy in 2005. Our choir made a second visit to the Loire Valley in 2007 and Chantemoy returned to Wolverhampton in 2010.

In 2006, David reluctantly took his leave of us, and was succeeded by Ian Clarke, already well known to the choir for his splendid organ and continuo playing in several of our concerts. Under Ian’s direction, the choir continues to develop its repertoire and skills, with performances of steadily increasing scale and musical quality. Membership currently stands at around 100 singers. Those interested in joining may be attracted by the policy of “no auditions”. The mix of old and new continues. Vaughan-Williams makes a welcome return in his centenary year.
The choir has frequently used local solo singers, including the baritone John Oxley who is a member of the choir. Other soloists are often drawn from past and present students of the Guildhall School of Music and we have over the years been fortunate enough to sing with young soloists who have later progressed to establish themselves as major performers on the concert stage. The choir has been accompanied over the years by a number of smaller orchestral groups, including most recently Chameleon Arts and the Orchestra da Chiesa. We have also been very fortunate in the pianists who have accompanied us both at rehearsals and performances. Anthea Podmore, our accompanist of very long standing, retired in 2006 and we were very pleased that the equally brilliant Beryl Beech was willing to join us.

Since 2006, under Ian’s meticulous guidance there has been an amazing musical journey, taking in performances of some of the most famous and much-loved choral classics, documented elsewhere and on the web-site, as well as lighter pieces, generally for our Summer Concert programmes. Beryl has been such a delightful, sensitive, hard-working and talented accompanist for over twelve years, that it was hard in 2018 for the Choir to accept her decision to retire, though happily remaining with us as a strong soprano. We were lucky indeed to be able to welcome Tony Bridgewater to follow on from her, bringing with him a wealth of experience, not just as an accompanist but also as a composer and performer, as well as willingly deputizing as MD from time to time.

Our new rehearsal home at Wombourne High School, back in Wombourne, together with our growing links with Wolverhampton Grammar School both form part of our development planning to ensure the Choir continues its high standard of music making for decades to come. As we celebrate our 90th year, we look forward to welcoming new members of all ages and to bringing our brand of music-making to an ever wider audience.

[This article has been condensed by Anthony Rathbone in 2008 from articles written in April 2000 by Dennis Powell, the choir's former conductor and by Giles Job, our archivist and member of the bass section, and recently updated (July 2019) by our then Chairman, Henry Ibberson.]