[Accy-mad]

Just joined having only discovered the Accrington Web yesterday -unfortunately, thinking I was being terribly original, I have chosen a name that is already used, albeit written in a slightly different case, so forgive me, the other "accymad". Now about Harry Birtwistle - and yes, that is his real name, my grandfather always referred to him as Harry and it seems that was always his name until he went posh. Also some reference books list him as "Harrison Paul Birtwistle" but I can assure you that he was registered at birth as just plain old Harry.(But his mother's maiden name was Harrison so I suppose we should allow him the right to use it!). My mother thinks his mother came from Cheshire.
Sadly, Harry seems rather to resist too much probing about our beloved "Accy" ; in interviews his remarks may be judged as, at best, scathing about the town that in fact gave him the musical background that enabled him to go to music college. His references to his time in local amateur orchestras is remembered by him as his not having realised at the time how bad they were, which is a bit rich when one of those orchestras,The Robert Cunliffe Orchestra,( a long-standing institution run by the New Jerusalem Church, Abbey Street with financial support from philanthropic business men in the town) produced many young people who went on to be respected professional musicians (mentioning two only -John Ayre, who was 1st horn with the Halle and Marion Ayre, oboist with the BBC Scottish Symphony ).
By the way, to the contributor who thought that having the name Birtwistle meant they were probably related may be disappointed - in the 1881 Census there were 1816 Birtwistles in Lancashire, most of whom were in the Hyndburn, Blackburn, Colne area with a few towards Manchester - multiply that by the degree of increase in the population and anybody doing family history in the Accy area will probably come across a Birtwistle ! (Making us all related I suppose!!)