Folk Club Documentary Records
A record-by-record reading of the Chelmsford Folk Club entries in Essex Archives Online catalogue SA 30/2/3/4. This page does not turn document groups into invented gig dates. Where the catalogue gives only a period or document type, that limitation is retained.
Box 1 — Chelmsford Folk Club
Record 35 — Golden Fleece
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 35.
Catalogue wording: Golden Fleece guest list and club crossword competitions.
What it establishes: surviving documentary material associated with the Golden Fleece period.
What remains open: the catalogue description does not enumerate the guests or give a complete date range here.
Record 36 — DJs Clubroom, August 1978
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 36.
Catalogue wording: DJs Clubroom guest list and newsletter, August 1978.
What it establishes: surviving August 1978 paper material specifically associated with DJs Clubroom.
Cross-reference: the Essex Record Office's published research identifies DJs Clubroom on Rainford Road as a Chelmsford Folk Club venue and reproduces a programme naming the Watersons, Seven Straw Braid and Roaring Jelly.
Record 37 — DJs guest lists
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 37.
Catalogue wording: DJs guest lists, September–November and March–June.
What it establishes: surviving guest-list material spanning those two periods.
What remains open: the catalogue description supplied here does not state the year for either range or enumerate the individual names.
Record 38 — 1979 / Autumn 1981
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 38.
Catalogue wording: newsletter December 1979; newsletter Autumn 1981.
What it establishes: surviving newsletters for December 1979 and Autumn 1981.
Record 39 — Spring & Summer 1982
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 39.
Catalogue wording: newsletters Spring 1982 and Summer 1982.
What it establishes: surviving 1982 newsletter material for those seasons.
Cross-reference: the archive also contains independent surviving sound recordings from 1982, but those are kept as a separate evidence layer.
Record 40 — Midwinter & Summer 1983
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 40.
Catalogue wording: newsletters Midwinter 1983 and Summer 1983.
What it establishes: surviving newsletter material for those 1983 periods.
Record 41 — Christmas 1983 / Winter 1984
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 41.
Catalogue wording: newsletters Christmas 1983 and Winter 1984.
What it establishes: surviving late-1983 and early-1984 newsletter material.
Record 42 — British Legion Hall, 1985
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 42.
Catalogue wording: newsletters Summer 1985 and Autumn 1985 (British Legion Hall).
What it establishes: surviving 1985 newsletter material explicitly associated in the catalogue with the British Legion Hall.
Cross-reference: this is documentary support for the venue trail; it is not treated as a complete 1985 programme.
Record 43 — 1979 brief history
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 43.
Catalogue wording: newsletter 1979 including brief history (DJs).
What it establishes: a surviving 1979 newsletter containing a brief history of the club at DJs.
Research value: potentially important for the venue sequence because it is explicitly historical material rather than only a guest list.
Record 44 — British Legion follow-up
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 1, item 44.
Catalogue wording: newsletters Spring–Summer (British Legion) and “Colin had a dream....”
What it establishes: surviving British Legion newsletter material plus the separately titled “Colin had a dream....” item.
What remains open: the catalogue description alone does not give the complete contents or chronology of the latter item.
Box 2 — additional Chelmsford record
Record 29 — Chelmsford guest lists and membership card
Source: SA 30/2/3/4, Box 2, item 29.
Catalogue wording: Chelmsford FC guest list at DJs, Chelmsford FC guest list at Golden Fleece, membership card 1977.
What it establishes: the collection contains Chelmsford guest-list material for both DJs and the Golden Fleece, together with a 1977 membership card.
Research significance: this is a particularly useful documentary bridge between the two named venues. It does not, by itself, establish the dates or performers represented by the guest lists.
Why these records matter
Venue sequence
The catalogue gives documentary anchors for Golden Fleece, DJs Clubroom and the later British Legion Hall. The surviving records can therefore support a venue history without requiring an assumed continuous chronology.
Paper + sound
The paper records sit alongside the SA 30/6 recording collection. The Record Office says Jim Etheridge recorded almost every Chelmsford Folk Club between 1978 and 1986, capturing whole evenings including announcements, floor singers and applause. Essex Record Office collection guide
Essex Folk News
The Record Office states that Essex folk clubs were documented in Essex Folk News, reference LIB/PER 2/22/1–50. That wider documentary trail remains separate from the individual SA 30/2/3/4 records here. Essex Record Office published research
Source
Essex Archives Online: SA 30/2/3/4 — Folk Clubs miscellaneous papers. The catalogue describes two boxes of material relating to Essex folk clubs, including Chelmsford Folk Club, and dates the collection broadly 1969–1985. Essex Archives Online catalogue
Paper Findings · Documentary Findings · Venue Timeline · Documentary Source Register