THE hunt is on for a 1970s banner from West Wylam’s once-popular jazz band, as a group hopes to bring back old memories to Eastwoods Park.

A local group, Friends of Eastwoods Park, is planning to submit a tender to Northumberland County Council for the park’s former bowls pavilion.

The building has stood empty for around a decade and has become neglected, and the group hope to turn it into a community space with room for a dog friendly café, toilet facilities, a community and activity room and a place for sports equipment for use in the park.

As part of their plans for the building, the group plans to have some memorabilia on display from the West Wylam Wanderers jazz band, which was popular in the 1970s and early 1980s when Eastwoods Park was used to host many jazz band competitions.

Trustee of the group, Russ Greig, said: “The jazz bands used to have a lot of competitions all over the North-East and they would all congregate.

“The whole community here used to come out for it and it was actually such a good thing for the local community and for the park.”

In particular, the group wishes to track down a large West Wylam Wanderers banner, which was pictured at Bellingham Show in the 1970s.

It has put out an appeal for anyone who knows where the banner is, or has any other memorabilia or photos from the band, to come forward.

“I don’t know what happened as to why the band declined, but we think it’s such a shame for the banner and any other memorabilia to be kind of lost and forgotten,” added Russ.

“There will be a lot of people in their 40s or 50s who as kids were in the jazz band and having the discussion about locating stuff has brought back a lot of memories.

“What we would like to do is get the banner on display along with other items for an exhibition.”

If the items are tracked down the group will consider exhibiting them in the town’s Spetchells Centre while it waits to find out whether it will get the go-ahead for the pavilion plans.