George Frew meets a musical outfit which is truly brassed off

BRASSED OFF: David Chadwick, left, Sandra Chadwick, Henry Justins, Howard Chadwick, Katie Clifton, and Peter Whitehouse and Huw Sadler at the front

From the promenade in Henley to Wallingford's Castle Gardens, at village fetes, private parties and weddings, the rich, sonorous playing of the Roke and Benson Brass Band has lifted the heart and cheered the spirits.

In the splendour of summer and on the cold winter nights in the run-up to the festive season, the band's members have turned out down the years, with some of them even giving up their time on Christmas Day itself to play for patients in the local hospitals.

Since 1882, the tiny south Oxfordshire hamlet of Roke and its bigger sister village, Benson, have provided the musicians for a band whose existence has been such a vital, traditional and integral part of their community.

A strictly non profit-making body, their engagements pay for the rent and the rates of their band hall - a building whose decay is so far advanced that it will not stand through another winter.

Now, given their reasons for existence, you might think that when the band went to the Arts Council to apply for lottery funding to rebuild the hall, they'd have had a better case than most - an open and shut one, even. Think again.

Despite the good the band does within its local communities and despite the fact that the stated purpose of lottery cash is to help good causes, Roke and Benson will have to look elsewhere for the money to rebuild their hall.

"We didn't fulfill the criteria," explains Sandra Chadwick, a band member since she was 14.

"People say that the lottery money is meant for good causes but they don't realise how complicated the procedure is when applying. We're not professional fundraisers - it took months for us to prepare the application. Other organisations who have been successful seem to be better resourced. We carry out our engagements to pay our rent - we're not here to make a profit.

"We play to give pleasure and enjoyment. But we'll build this hall. South Oxfordshire District Council has been generous and so have various parish councils and trusts - they've all been very good. We've had money from the Community Trust Fund but we need to raise about 9,000 still ourselves."

The Arts Council decision seems harsh when you consider that small village bands like the Roke and Benson have to compete for grants with symphony orchestras, but if they lose their hall, the band members face an uncertain future - after being part of the local fabric for over a century.

They say they'll just have to work even harder to reach their target - an overall sum of some 100,000. The band plan to approach local celebrities - including former Beatle George Harrison - to ask for help.

There are 28 musicians in the main band, 14 in the training band and a further eight in the swing band.

This, whatever way you look at it, is a way of life, part of these people's heritage. As Sandra herself puts it: "Our junior members have been especially disappointed. And I'm surprised we've managed to keep the kids interested as long as we have, given the circumstances.

"The hall would be used to teaching children how to play brass instruments and we would hope that, with improved facilities, we will be able to actively encourage disabled members into the band and run musical therapy classes.

This, then, is the bottom line: the Arts Council has spoken and no cash will be forthcoming for the Roke and Benson.

You can only wish them well while reflecting on some of the projects some of the lottery money actually goes to.

Maybe the members of this small community band would have done better to announce that they intended to encase their dilapidated hall in a plastic tank and submerge it in formaldehyde.

Perhaps then the Arts Council might have coughed up the cash.

As it is, you can't blame the Roke and Benson band for feeling brassed off.