FOLK and country music was in its heyday in the 1950s and for some lonely hearted pupils at Adcroft Boy’s School in Trowbridge, this provided them with an opportunity that would see them reunite after nearly 60 years.

The Griffins were a country dance band formed by eight pupils at the Trowbridge school in 1955 to provide live music for dances.

At the time, there were over 150 boarders attending the school, coming from all parts of Wiltshire and beyond, although it was the idea of the headmaster to start a band.

Malcolm Mace played piano in the band and was a boarder at the school, having his family live in Corsham.

“There were 150 borders at Adcroft and the school had to keep us occupied during the evening somehow. From my point of view, I learned the piano very badly before I attended the school but during my interview to get in I told them I was learning,” Mr Mace said.

“So when I started I was told by the headmaster that I would have to play in the assembly and I played at every morning assembly for the three years I was there.”

“Because we had country dances in the evenings, it seemed the natural thing to do to create a band. We seemed to all click and we just worked well together which was an amazing thing to have.”

Other members of The Griffins included Ken Pike on drums, Basil Smith on accordion, Ray Chapman on trumpet, Dave Sharpe on a fiddle and Alvin Shears, Graham Cooper and Ron Blick who played the harmonica.

One of the bands endeavours was to enter the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) national folk group competition at Cecil Sharp House in London in 1957.

Mr Mace said as a young group, the experience to play to a crowd and to win the competition was something the group could only dreamed about. He added: “I can remember the day we went to Cecil Sharp House in London so vividly. There were only three bands in the competition and when you think of a country dance band you don’t normally hear a harmonica and we were quite young.

“The audience was packed and they got behind us and it was quite an experience.”

As a result of their unprecedented success, the band appeared on the BBC children’s television show, All Your Own which ran from 1952-1961. They were also able to play at the Devizes Folk festival at the Corn Exchange.

As the pupils left Adcroft and moved back to their retrospective towns, The Griffins disbanded and contact was lost for many years.

However, after a long search the band was reunited 58 years later at a celebratory lunch at the Pheasant in Chippenham last month and the group soon got back into their school day ways.

Mr Mace said: “It was quite a long time since we saw each other. I left school in 1958 and when we met there were some people I didn’t recognise. There was an awful a lot of chat and laughter and a lot of reminiscing. It was considerably moving.”

The group have now vowed to keep in touch with one another.