The Half Moon Folk Club was held at the Half Moon, Meadrow, Farncombe on the periphery of Godalming – it was the first pub on the left as you entered Godalming from Guildford. It’s where Roger Learwood also ran the Godalming Singers Club in the early 70’s.

November / December 1975 at the Half Moon

On the 9 December ’72 in partnership with Stag Folk, the Half Moon presented a charity folk concert, at the Wilfrid Noyce Centre, Godalming, in aid of G.O.P.W.A. for a drop-in centre for the elderly. In ’75, Julian High and John Gardner reopened and ran the Singers’ Club at the Half Moon, as a Stagfolk side project for a couple of years. Their re-opening night, on 20 November ’75, featured the rich, sonorous, baritone of Martin Winsor as the club’s special guest that month; with Johnny Collins – who’d released the LP “Johnny’s Private Army” earlier that year and loved to have the audience sing the choruses with him – filling the role the week before Christmas.

The Half Moon closed in 1984 and is now a commercial building called Capital House.

Gallery:

9 December 1972: Ticket for a Half Moon Charity Concert. Source: David Johnson’s post in Godalming Town Past & Present.
M. Strong’s Half Moon Folk Club Membership Card. Picture courtesy of Ben’s Collector’s Records