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Back in 1975, unless you were a Brownie or a Guide, there wasn’t very much going on for the girls in Gt Cornard and Sudbury.  And then one lady, Jean Ashby decided to ask if there would be any interest in forming a majorette troupe.  Not even she could have imagined what happened next…

Great Cornard and Sudbury Marching Band and Troupe was formed in 1975.  Back then, it was just a big group of girls walking in vaguely straight lines to some dodgy military music on tape and a group of mums who sewed the first batch of uniforms.  None of us had done anything like it before but under the tutelage of the Third Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who were at the time based in Colchester, something special began to happen.

Over the next few years the group grew and grew, and a band was formed by girls many of whom had never played an instrument in their lives and such was the enthusiasm that new groups begun springing up.  Soon Sudbury boasted 3 troupes – the red and white Gt Cornard and Sudbury Marching Band and Troupe, the blue Suffolk Royals, and the purple Mauve Thorns.  All three groups travelled all over the country and into Europe to march for people’s entertainment.  There were also competitions, and very rarely did any of the troupes come away from those competitions without trophies.  We were good!  But perhaps more importantly, the whole experience was good.  We got to travel thousands of miles on our respective troupe buses to places we would never normally have seen, and we met people along the way who we would never have met had it not been for that idea back in 1975.  We were disciplined, but we were proud to be doing what we were doing.  We were having the time of our lives. 

Unfortunately though, times change and girls (and boys!) grow up and by the early 1990s all of the bands had disappeared as their members got on with their lives.  But the nostalgia for those glorious days never faded.  Once you’d been a majorette or marched in a band, it was in your blood.

Which is precisely why 30 years later when Donna Dix and Sharron Saddington put forward the idea of reuniting for the new Sudbury Carnival, they were immediately swamped by hundreds of girls – now grown women with daughters of their own – who wanted to be part of it. The first time the group got together for a rehearsal  – red and whites, blues and mauves all in one room and all in one troupe – it was as if the 30 years just fell away. 

We might not be able to raise our knees so high when we march nowadays, there might be a duff note or two, and Health and Safety rules mean that batons will stay firmly in hand but we are honoured and proud to be leading the Sudbury Carnival on 24^th August.  And very, very excited.  It’s going to be a huge amount of fun, and we also hope to raise a huge amount of money for our two chosen charities as we relive the time of our lives.

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