With a warm sound that brings to mind snow-covered mining towns, brass bands are as northern as mushy peas and Elsie Tanner.

But a Cambridge University academic has put a muffler in that claim with a study that claims they were actually started by military musicians returning from the Napoleonic wars.

Dr Eamonn O'Keeffe has found evidence that former soldiers around the country were founding civilian bands to make ends meet from the 1820s, with the earliest he has identified performing on the south coast in 1828.

The findings 'undermine the idea that brass bands were a civilian and exclusively northern creation' that emerged between the 1830s and 1850s.

Dr O'Keeffe told the Mail: 'I tried to make it not too much of a regional thing [but] I'm sure some people will be surprised.'

He added: 'They are primarily seen as a product of industrialisation pioneered by a combination of working class performers and middle class sponsors.

'But all-brass bands first appeared in Britain and Ireland in a regimental guise. As well as producing a large cohort of band trainers, the military provided a familiar and attractive template for amateur musicians and audiences.

'This coincided with expanding commercial opportunities and a growing belief in the moralising power of music.'

The quasi-martial troupes enjoyed 'cross-class appeal' and became fixtures in seaside resorts, pitheads and political demonstrations in the years after Waterloo and were not confined to northern towns, according to Dr O'Keeffe, who is the National Army Museum junior research fellow at Queen's College, Cambridge.

'Soldiers returned from the Napoleonic wars amidst a severe economic recession and many suffered a great deal,' he added.

'But here we see musicians using the skills they developed in the military to survive and often thrive.'

In the report, published in The Historical Journal, the academic says regimental bands first experimented with the all-brass format, instead of mixing woodwind and brass, from the 1810s onward, with the 15th Regiment of Foot organising a bugles-only band in 1818.

Other regiments jumped on the bandwagon over the next decade as new instruments such as valved trumpets became available.

The first civilian band Dr O'Keeffe has identified was Colyton Brass Band, which played God Save the King in a Devon Village in November 1828 as part of the birthday celebrations for a baronet's son.

Others sprang up in Chester and Sunderland the following year, Derby and Sidmouth in 1831 and Poole in 1832.

The new information came from overlooked press reports, memoirs and regimental records.

With more than 20,000 instrumentalists serving in uniform in 1814, many used their skills to forge musical careers as performers, instructors and composers once demobilised.

'These findings illustrate just how deeply brass bands are embedded in British history and culture,' said Canadian-born Dr O'Keeffe, 28.

'We already knew about their relationship with industrialisation. Now we know that brass bands emerged from Britain's wars with Napoleon.'

Kenny Crookston, chief executive of Brass Bands England, said the true origins of brass bands had been lost through the march of popular culture during the 20th century.

Rather than being brassed off at the study, he added: 'I see it as a clarification of history.

'The main thing is, there's stereotypes out there about Northerners, with flat caps and whippet racing types, that do brass bands.

'But if you walk into any one these days, you're as likely to be next to a doctor or engineer or other professional person. They come from all over society.'

A 2019 study by the University of Sheffield's Department of Music found playing in a brass band had a positive impact on health, with benefits including reduced stress and healthier lungs.