The Orpington Junior Singers was founded in 1949 by John Brown with musical directorship soon taken on by Sheila Mossman. During the Fifties and Sixties the choir became famous in Britain and elsewhere, giving numerous concerts and broadcasts each year. The choir acheived notable successes in the BBC's principal competition for amateur choirs at the time, 'Let the People Sing'. It won the youth section in 1960, their performance moving then Master of the Queen's Musick, Sir Arthur Bliss, to become the choir's President.
After Sheila Mossman's death in 1971, the choir saw a number of conductors come ago until finally the musical directorship was passed to Sybil Cox (then Sybil Bell) in 1980. Although the numbers of the choir were much smaller than they had been in previous decades, the choir was instead a close core group of loyal and committed members together with their pianist Joy Williams. The choir toured widely to Rhode Island, Denmark, Sweden and Budapest, Hungary. In 1981, they took part in the BBC's 'Let the People Sing' competition for the first time in some years to be placed second in the South East region. The early eighties featured many music-theatre pieces for the choir such as 'Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo', the 'Christmas Jazz' by Menotti, the 'Daniel Jazz' by Herbert Chappell, Rutter's 'The Piper of Hamlin', 'Swingin' Samson', and 'The Rooster Rag', not to mention the 'Sound of Music' perfomed in costume as part of the May celebrations outdoors in Orpington's Priory Gardens.
