Folk Club Paper Findings
A dated extraction layer from the surviving Chelmsford Folk Club paper trail. The entries below are limited to what the catalogue and published Essex Record Office research explicitly identify. They are documentary findings, not reconstructed gig lists.
Surviving Chelmsford Folk Club paper groups
Golden Fleece
Surviving material: guest list and club crossword competitions.
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, item 35.
This establishes a documentary trail for the Golden Fleece period, while the catalogue does not supply a complete programme in this entry.
DJs Clubroom — August 1978
Surviving material: guest list and newsletter.
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, item 36.
The DJs Clubroom material is part of the surviving Rainford Road paper trail identified elsewhere in the archive.
DJs guest lists
Surviving material: guest lists for September–November and March–June.
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, item 37.
The catalogue gives the periods but does not, in this description alone, enumerate every guest or date.
1979
Surviving material: December 1979 newsletter and a separate 1979 newsletter containing a brief history of the club at DJs.
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, items 38 and 43.
1981–82
Surviving material: Autumn 1981 newsletter; Spring 1982 and Summer 1982 newsletters.
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, items 38–39.
1983–84
Surviving material: Midwinter 1983, Summer 1983, Christmas 1983 and Winter 1984 newsletters.
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, items 40–41.
1985 — British Legion Hall
Surviving material: Summer 1985 and Autumn 1985 newsletters explicitly identified with the British Legion Hall.
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, item 42.
British Legion follow-up
Surviving material: Spring–Summer newsletter material and the item titled “Colin had a dream....”
Catalogue: SA 30/2/3/4, item 44.
1995 closure report — Chelmsford Weekly News
A user-supplied newspaper photograph records the article “Folk fans sad as club closes”, identified in the supplied caption as the Chelmsford Weekly News, 21 September 1995. The article names Richard Christian as songwriter and club organiser, identifies Malcolm Campbell as the landlord, and says the club’s last days were spent at The Cock and Bell in Writtle. It reports that the club had played host to many big names and had closed after about 30 years, with insufficient attendance/income cited as the immediate problem.
This is a closure/context source, not a complete performance list. Open the full source record →
Programme evidence
DJs Clubroom, Rainford Road
The Essex Record Office's published research reproduces a Chelmsford Folk Club programme headed DJs Clubroom on Rainford Road. The programme lists the Watersons, Seven Straw Braid and Roaring Jelly, and the Record Office describes Chelmsford Folk Club as having regular guests and floor singers. Essex Record Office published research
This is stronger than a generic venue association because the surviving programme itself is identified in the Record Office research. It still should not be expanded into an undated complete programme beyond the names actually shown.
How this connects to the recordings
3 March 1985
The paper trail establishes surviving club newsletters and guest-list material in this period. Separately, SA 30/6/653/1 gives a detailed surviving recording: Sam Bond compere; Populat Wobblies; Peter Billing; Geoff Harris; Simon Ritchie and Bobbie?; Steve Morris; parish notices. The recording ends abruptly. Essex Record Office archive material
22 December 1985
The surviving recording of East Anglian Dulcimers names Paul McCann and Jill Palmer-Swift. The Essex Record Office also highlights this recording in its published folk-club research and listening-bench material. Essex Record Office published research
20 April 1986
The surviving recording identifies Seven Straw Braid performing Chelmsford Assembly. The published Record Office research identifies the recording as part of the Chelmsford Folk Club material. Essex Record Office published research
The paper trail and recording catalogue are deliberately kept as separate evidence layers. The existence of a newsletter does not automatically identify the performers on a surviving tape, and a surviving tape does not automatically establish the contents of every newsletter.
Source routes
Essex Archives Online
Essex Record Office research
Archive trail on this site
Folk Club Paper Trail · Documentary Findings · Documentary Source Register
Documentary Records
Open the individual documentary record layer — catalogue-by-catalogue, with evidence boundaries retained.