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Since the original establishment of the Charles Moore Collection at the University of Leicester in 1982, there have been some acquisitions of non-wind instruments, and so the collection is now designated as less specialised and being of the wider term 'musical instruments'. The collection is divided into three sections:
Download a PDF catalogue of the Charles Moore instrument collection
This short biography of Charles Moore's life is written in connection with the instruments collected by him in the course of his business and band associations, but little is known of the collection, which was not exhibited during his lifetime. He is remembered instead as a brass band conductor, trainer and adjudicator, eminent cornet player, church choirmaster and local politician.
He was born on Moat Street, Wigston Magna, on 11 May 1878, the sixth child of a family that eventually numbered ten children. He left the local Church Day School at the age of eleven to work in a stockinger's shop, and until 1912 continued to be involved in the hosiery trade, variously at Market Harborough, Oadby, Wigston and Leicester.
From the age of seven he had been involved in church music, and, as there was already a tradition of brass playing in the family, he commenced cornet lessons. At the age of nineteen he studied the instrument with Edward Matthews, cornet player at the Leicester Opera House. In 1903 he married Matthews' daughter, Kate. A cornopean, which is now in the instrument collection, was formerly owned by the Matthews family, and it is probable that this was played by Moore's father-in-law. Although his full-time employment in the hosiery trade continued, Charles Moore worked with Matthews as cornettist at the Opera House, also fulfilling engagements at Winn's Oriental Cafe, where he was cellist in a piano trio.
He was a founder-member of Wigston Temperance Band in 1902, later becoming its conductor; in this capacity, he guided the band to the Championship Section at the Crystal Palace contests during the twenties. He opened a piano and sheet music business in Station Road, Wigston in 1912. This moved to Blaby Road, South Wigston, the next year and remained as a music shop until the succeeding owners moved the business to Kibworth in the early eighties. Following Charles Moore's death, the family continued to run the shop until the end of 1973.
Charles Moore was the instigator of the formation of many new bands throughout the area, also taking a hand in the training of these. He conducted the Countesthorpe Cottage Homes Boys' Band for thirty-seven years, and was involved in bands at Kibworth, Great Glen, Fleckney, Croft, Oadby, Burbage, Barlestone and Melton. He was also associated with bands in Warwickshire and Norfolk. He was prominent in the foundation of the Leicestershire Brass Band Association, and was a notable contributor to the National Association. As an adjudicator his duties took him to both the Crystal Palace and Belle Vue contests. He was a prolific band arranger, but none of these arrangements were published.
In the field of Church Music, he held choirmaster's positions at Blaby and Cosby, and was later Choirmaster at St Thomas' Church, South Wigston, where a strong choral tradition still remains. He was involved with the Church Lads' Brigade in Leicester, and taught wind instruments, during the second world war, at Alderman Newton's Boys' School.
Charles Moore was a Wigston Urban District Councillor from 1938 until 1953; he was Chairman in 1946-7.
When he died, in 1962, there were many tributes from the wide variety of fields in which he had worked. R Curtis Weston summarised most when he noted:
He was a man of the highest integrity and deepest sincerity. He was always willing to help any cause, and was constantly concerned about other people.
