A deliberately narrow index of Chelmsford Folk Club performance records for which the surviving Essex Record Office material supplies a specific performance date and a named recording/catalogue reference. This is not a complete gig list.
Open the Folk Club Recording Catalogue Check — direct catalogue and published-archive cross-checks for the dated surviving recordings.
Reference: SA 30/6/94/1
RECORDING RECORD A surviving catalogue record places a Chelmsford Folk Club Christmas Special in 1978. The surviving material does not provide enough performer detail here to reconstruct the programme.
Reference: SA 30/6/402/1
DATED + NAMED The surviving record identifies the performers and date. Essex Record Office research independently highlights the Sarah and Mick Graves recording from this date.
Catalogue Index · Recording Provenance · Documentary Crosswalk
Reference: SA 30/6/425/1
DATED + NAMED The catalogue identifies Martin Carthy; the surviving record is parts 2 and 4 of 4, so the archive does not present it as a complete surviving evening.
Catalogue Index · Performance Records · Recording Provenance
Reference: SA 30/6/428/1
DATED + NAMED The catalogue identifies Annie Harding singing “Reynardine” and records three Chelmsford Morris dances connected with the club's tenth anniversary. The surviving recording is parts 1 and 3 of 4.
Annie Harding Oral History · Associated Recordings · Recording Provenance
Reference: SA 30/6/653/1
DATED + NAMED The surviving record names the Popular Wobblies, Peter Billing, Geoff Harris, Simon Ritchie and others. The recording ends abruptly; the archive does not reconstruct what is missing.
Reference: SA 30/6/712/1
DATED + NAMED The surviving record identifies the East Anglian Dulcimers; the Essex Record Office listening-bench material specifically highlights Paul McCann and Jill Palmer-Swift performing at Chelmsford Folk Club on this date.
Reference: SA 30/6/736/1
DATED + NAMED Jill Palmer-Swift introduces “Chelmsford Assembly”, performed by Seven Straw Braid at Chelmsford Folk Club. The surviving record is part 1 of 2.
Performance Records · Recording Provenance · Documentary Findings
Early 1960s Folk Five claim: Don Budds' oral history says the Folk Five played their first Chelmsford Folk Club gig in the early 1960s, but the exact night is unknown. It therefore remains an oral-history lead.
1977–1985 paperwork: newsletters, guest lists and club-history material establish documentary periods and venue context, but are not automatically individual performance records.
Chelmsford Morris May Day 1980 (SA 30/6/33/1) and Blackmore Morris at Chelmsford Folk Club in 1983 (SA 30/6/478/1) are kept in the associated-recordings layer because they are related to the Folk Club collection but should not be merged into the core dated performance list.
The surviving recording collection is unusually valuable because Jim Etheridge recorded almost every Chelmsford Folk Club between 1978 and 1986, including whole evenings, announcements, floor singers and applause. The catalogue, however, survives unevenly, so this page records only the dates that can be stated directly from the surviving evidence.
This filter only changes the display of the seven catalogue-backed dated records; it does not expand the underlying evidence set.
The useful next step is not to invent missing dates, but to compare these dated recording records against surviving programmes, newsletters and Essex Folk News. The site now keeps those evidence trails separate so a future discovery can strengthen a record without rewriting the source history.
Recording Research Targets · Venue Research Targets · Archive Questions