fife and drums

One thing I wish I could start in the UK is an 18th century fife and drum group. Not sure why it hasn't happened much - the Guild of Ancient Fife and Drums used to wear 18thc kit of sorts - someone will probably say 'we have one' but as far as I know there isn't a fife and drum group for the 18th century in Britain. Where do you start? Research-wise this site has a Chronological list of fife and drum sources that is useful and you can see that a lot of it is late 18thc.
Most of the interest in the English language on field drums and fifes is in the Americas where there has been a lot of research and practical work. This Field Drums blog is a good place to start.
Given the cost of decent drums at somewhere like Marcus Music - it's a relatively inexpensive instrument...finding fifers is probably the hard part.