Stourbridge Circle
The Stourbridge Circle (also known as SADO, the Stourbridge And District SF Circle) was a club based in Stourbridge, a small town near Birmingham. It was active from the winter of 1957–58 to 1962. Les Spinge started as a clubzine and later took life of its own as a fine general interest fanzine.
In a letter to Prolapse #7 (June 2007), Mike Kilvert said the group was formed during the winter of 1957–58 although he, Ken Cheslin and Peter Davies had known each other since 1947. Cheslin was in contact with wider fandom through Ken Slater, leading to correspondence with the Cheltenham Group. The trio may have also attended Cytricon IV in 1958; Kilvert certainly said they did in that same letter. However, some details of his account don't coincide with known aspects of the convention and so it's possible that in writing 50-odd years after the event he was mixing up conventions. They certainly attended Brumcon in 1959.
In 1959 the group advertised in a local newspaper. This only attracted one response, from Tony Hill. They also recruited Jack Raybould, a near neighbour of Davies. Kilvert joined the army in February 1960, while Dave Hale and Darroll Pardoe joined that same month. Kilvert didn't resume contact with the group after he ended his military service and Davies left the group in the early 1960s after a falling out with Cheslin.
Members[edit]
| Club | 1957—1962 |
| This is a club page. Please extend it by adding information about when and where the club met, when and by whom it was founded, how long it was active, notable accomplishments, well-known members, clubzines, any conventions it ran, external links to the club's website, other club pages, etc.
When there's a floreat (Fl.), this indicates the time or times for which we have found evidence that the club existed. This is probably not going to represent the club's full lifetime, so please update it if you can! |
