The Group always attended the Remembrance Day service at St. Andrews Church to pay their respects to all the members of our community killed in war, along with the members of the Troop who died serving in the armed services in the First and Second World Wars. See our Memorial here.

For Remembrance Day 2010, John Champ suggested borrowing a Drum from our friends at 11th Kidsgrove’s Drum band and parade from the Church Hall down to St. Andrews. Arrangements were made with the police and we paraded the short distance to the Church.

After the parade, it was suggested the Group might start a Drum Corps for its members. In fact, this would be a restarting, as there were drums and bugles in the Group from the 1910s. We don’t think drum band was in continuous existence from that date, but the buglers certainly played at the dedication of the War Memorial and we have photos of them in the 1960s. The drum band would have finished with the end of the Scout troop in the 1960s.

Equipment was bought, Cubs and Scouts who joined practised and they made their public debut at the 2011 District St. George’s Day Parade in Newcastle.

For Remembrance Day 2011, a longer route for the parade was devised around the streets around the Church Hall.

The Drum Corps grew in size and passed the Scout Association’s criteria to be able to play at events etc. It was decided that only members or ex members of the Group could join the Drums (ex members were allowed to include Explorers and Leaders who were in other Groups).

For 2013, the Remembrance Day expanded again, starting at St. Barnabas Church in Bradwell and Parading down to St. Andrews.

2014 was a big year as it was the Centenary of the beginning of the First World War. We invited our friends from 14th Basford 36th St. Wulstans Scout Groups to join us along with local Guides and Boys Brigade. The parade started again at Bradwell and went to Porthill, but after the Act of Remembrance and service at St. Andrews we paraded to the Wolstanton War Memorial at St. Margarets – there were a lot of people with us that year!

The Drums in the meantime had started playing at events in Newcastle town centre, at carnivals, for example the Bakewell Carnival and they were invited to play at the National Arboretum twice. They had started to make a name for themselves!

Remembrance Day 2015, 2016 & 2017 were Bradwell to Porthill parades. 2018, for the Centenary of the end of the First World War, we paraded from Bradwell to Porthill, the to St. Margarets in Wolstanton, then on to St. Marks in Basford. Even more people joined us this time and the amount of people we hat at the Wolstanton War Memorial was amazing! We even had an American WW2 truck join the parade at the rear.

The 2019 parade was back to the “normal” route between Bradwell and Porthill.

Sadly the 2020 and 2021 parades couldn’t go ahead due to the pandemic, although the Drums did play at the Act of Remembrance at St Andrews. In 2022, we couldn’t parade as we didn’t have police support, but it was back in 2023 and 2024.

The drums started to practice and perform again in 2021 after the worst of the pandemic, but due to a fall in numbers, it was decided to open membership up to members of the District. By 2024 the Leaders of the Drum Corps were drifting away from the Group and as the Drums had District Members, it was decided to transfer it to the District given the state of the Group.

The Drum Corps transferred to Newcastle District in the summer of 2024 where it continues to flourish.