Japanese drums arrive in Shropshire

The £10,000 Taiko drums were ordered in April after a fundraising campaign. They were crafted by experts in China, finished off in Germany and shipped over to Britain.

Now they are at home in Thomas Adams School in Wem.

Japanese-style drumming group Taiko in the Community – which meets in term time at the school and at St Peter's Primary School in Wem – has been fundraising for more than a year for the new drums.

Group leader Martin Fischer said: "We were in desperate need of some new drums. Our old big barrow drums – Mia drums – were 16 years old and were worn and getting to the point when we would not have been able to use them any

more.

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"We have more than 60 people who use them and put on a number of displays so it would have been a real shame if we would have had to close, so this has breathed new life into us.

"The new drums were first used by the community group session on Friday night and everyone was very excited."

Taiko in the Community has been running for 15 years and is mainly funded by the participants with drummers aged from nine years old to 75.

Mr Fischer has raised funds for the new drums through an Easter egg raffle, bingo events, a large cracker raffle and various other events.

Money was also donated by the Shropshire Housing Group Community Development Fund and the Worshipful Company of Drapers and fundraising is set to continue in the run up to Christmas.

"Our aim is to become a self-sufficient group but the task keeps getting more difficult as we grow in popularity," Mr Fischer said.

"It costs us £6,000 a year for tutors and we also have to pay for the upkeep of the drums."

The next fundraising event will be a drum night in Stanier Hall at Thomas Adams School on November 20 at 7.15pm. There will be a small entrance fee.