The origins of SELWG, go back to the 60's. The future founder, Chris Hurren, whilst living in central London, and playing Wargames with the like's of, Charles Grant Sr, and Donald Fetherstone, took the opportunity of a new job as a youth leader at Grove Park youth club, in South East London. Chris decided to move to Dunkerry road, just around the corner from the club, to be nearer work, but continued to travel to central London, and Dover, to do his wargaming.
In 1971, Chris approached the youth club authorities, and persuaded them, to allow him to start up a Wargames club within the Grove Park, youth club setup. Chris picked a date for the first meeting, February 1971, and set about spreading the word, placing adds, within a number of local papers, and in the now defunct shops of; Welling Model World, The Rye Stamp and Hobby Shop, and the London Model Consortium, which later became Beatties.
The first meeting was a resounding success, with over a hundred people turning up, Military modellers and Wargamers alike, although in the early days about 60% of the club were Military modellers. In 1974 the make up of SELWG started to change, with most of the Military modellers leaving, to found the; "Welling Military Modellers club".
In 1973, the club held its first ever Open Day, at the club premises, with the addition of a marque on the lawn outside, [which is now part of the car parking facilities]. The open day became an integral part of the club, staying at the club premises, until 1980, when it moved to Greenwich town hall. Two other moves followed, Lewisham Sports Center in 1985, [where the club tied in with a new Wargaming/Modelling magazine, "Army and Navy Model World" to provide the wargaming community with better coverage of the show, a vast amount of prizes in the painting competition, and the now ubiquitous, plastic bags.] Then to its present location at Crystal Palace in 1993. We also co-ran in 1982, [I think that was the year,] with The South London Warlords, a Wargames convention, at the Margate Wintergardens.
Over the years, the club has put on a number of excellent games at other peoples Wargames shows, The Dambusters, Zap a Zepplin, Orc Day, and Rob a Bank with a Tank, to name but a few. In fact, the last two, both won prizes at the same SALUTE. Orc Day, best painted army, the game was run, and designed, by Ben Roberts, and Rob a Bank with a Tank, best party game, run by Jock Ramage, designed by, Paul Greenwood, and Jock Ramage, with the computer programme designed by the late great, and close friend, Robin Hunt.
The club has seen in it's 4 decades of existence, wargaming grow into the fastest growing hobby in the country, where you could count the number of clubs in the 60's on one hand. Where figures used, would be either, Arfix, Minifigs, or Hinchcliffe, to the present day, where clubs are numbered in the hundreds, from all over the world, and where figures used, come from some of the over, 200 plus traders dotted around the globe. Also not forgetting the other ancillary products; books, paints, brushes, and so on and so on.
Trends have come and gone at the club, but the favorites still remain and grow, Ancients, still a big favorite, now more so with the advent of Warhammer Historical, Renaissance, Napoleonic's, Victorian, Modern, and last but not least, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, with Warhammer 40K, and Fantasy Battles sprouting up.
From humble beginnings, meeting on one Friday each month, to meeting every Friday, and one Sunday a month, SELWG, continues to grow, membership now stands at 90 members, [at our high point in the mid 80's we had in excess of a 135 members]. The club still runs one of the countries premier shows, at Crystal Palace each year, and also runs the famous SELWG bring and buy at our own show, and SALUTE.
The ravages of time have caught up with some of the older members, some have sadly gone for good, some have drifted away to start their own clubs, joined others closer to home, or some have finally met that great Wargamers Nemesis, a woman, [why you want to play with toy soldiers at your age, is beyond me.] SELWG, I hope to all our members, past and present, Male or Female, is more than just a Wargames club, its where all of us have formed lasting friendships over the years, through the good times and bad. I would like to think that in a couple of hundred years time, a SELWG member will lovingly pick up his personnel hologramatic display imager, and look back at the faces of club members from 1971 and say, "Christ, wasn't there a lot of ugly sods around at the club in the 20th century".
Based on the history of SELWG, from recounts from Chris Hurren, Chris McNeil, Peter Wilson, Ken Cooper, Winston Churchill's, 'History of Britannia and her peoples', and Bryan Edwards.
A new chapter opens for the club, we have moved after 36 years at Grove Park, and as from Friday 13th of April, 2007, we will be meeting at the St Laurence Church Hall, Catford, South London.
It came to most of the club members as a shock, that after all the years we spent in Grove Park, the Youth club decided that they would be using the club venue for, what I think it was intended for, the youth of the area, well most of us are old codgers now, I became a member at the grand old age of 25, I am now 50, so getting into the school uniform is impratical, and somewhat illegal now.
I think all of us have fond memories of Grove Park, I certainly do, and will be writing an article on it.
Now that we have a larger venue, the club hopes to increase its membership, hopefully go from strength, to strength, and see out the next 36 years, and a lot more, in our new home.
