Colin Cater
SA 30/7/1/7/1 records his involvement with Chelmsford Folk Club and his recollection of the Three Cups, Golden Fleece, DJs Clubroom and later British Legion Club period.
Venue Trail · Oral History IndexVenue research / chronology
Folk Club Venue Timeline
A chronological working view of the places associated with Chelmsford Folk Club. This is deliberately an evidence timeline, not a claimed complete venue history.
Important: different sources answer different questions. Oral histories can preserve remembered moves that have no surviving dated notice; the paper collection can prove that a venue was used without proving the exact date of a move. The timeline therefore uses evidence labels instead of silently filling gaps.
Current evidence-led sequence
| Period | Place | Evidence | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early 1960s | Chelmsford Folk Club — exact room not yet established | Oral history + published Record Office research | Don Budds recalls the Folk Five's first Chelmsford Folk Club appearance as being in the early 1960s. Record Office research independently describes Chelmsford Folk Club as an early-1960s club. No exact room is assigned here. |
| c. 1970–71 | Three Cups | Oral history | Colin Cater's 1999 interview recalls Chelmsford Folk Club moving to the Three Cups around 1970–71. The approximate date remains approximate. |
| 1970s | Golden Fleece | Surviving paper | SA 30/2/3/4 contains a Chelmsford Folk Club Golden Fleece guest list and club crossword material; a separate item records a 1977 Chelmsford FC guest list at the Golden Fleece. |
| Late 1970s–1980s | DJs Clubroom, Rainford Road | Paper + recording context | The surviving collection contains DJs Clubroom guest lists and newsletters, while Record Office research reproduces a Chelmsford Folk Club programme identifying DJs Clubroom on Rainford Road. Jim Etheridge's Chelmsford recordings begin in 1978. |
| 1985 | British Legion Hall | Surviving paper | SA 30/2/3/4 explicitly identifies Summer and Autumn 1985 newsletters as relating to the British Legion Hall. |
| Later period — undated | YMCA | Oral history | Colin Cater's interview refers to Chelmsford Folk Club being at the YMCA during a later period and describes decline there. The interview does not provide a precise move date, so none is invented here. |
Why the sequence has gaps
The surviving evidence is uneven. The Essex Record Office catalogue lists guest lists, newsletters and programmes, but these are not a continuous dated diary. The oral histories add remembered venue changes, but later recollection is not treated as equivalent to a contemporary notice.
The result is intentionally less tidy than a conventional venue history: a blank interval means the present archive has not yet proved the missing step.
Strongest source trails
Paper collection
SA 30/2/3/4 contains Golden Fleece guest material, DJs Clubroom guest lists/newsletters and 1985 British Legion Hall newsletters.
Paper Trail · Catalogue IndexPublished Record Office research
The Record Office's Folk in Essex research describes Chelmsford Folk Club as part of the active Essex circuit and reproduces a programme identifying DJs Clubroom on Rainford Road.
Early Scene Corroboration · Folk Club CircuitStill unresolved
- Exact room and date for the earliest 1960s Chelmsford Folk Club period.
- Exact date of the move to the Three Cups.
- Exact transition between the Three Cups, Golden Fleece and DJs Clubroom periods.
- Exact dates for the later YMCA period.
- Whether the uncorroborated Tindal Street / White Hart memory can be supported by contemporary evidence.
Continue the research trail
Venue Trail · Early Scene · Early Scene Source Trail · Paper Trail · Evidence Matrix · Evidence Intersections