Silverton Youth Club 1967-70. An example of youth self organisation.

The major complaint of young people in the period since world war two is that most communities lacked youth facilities. At the beginning of 1967 this was as true of Silverton as anywhere else. For those not interested in the uniformed organisations the main evenings entertainment, then as now, was gathering in the bus shelter. A group of people, mainly in their mid teens got together and decided that if the local authority or similar were not going to provide organisation and facilities they would do so themselves. They called a meeting of local youth, elected a committee from amongst themselves, approached a group of sympathetic adults to act in an oversight role and set about running their own weekly gathering in the New Hall.

From the beginning, SYC was entirely self financing with money coming from events organised by the members themselves such as discos and jumble sales. A couple of table tennis tables were aquired and regular meetings of the club took place in the New Hall. refreshments were sold and an antique sound \system was brought into play using a collection of records donated by members themselves. Discipline was maintained by the committee with suspensions and bans being handed out to the reletively few offenders. The club also organised trips including a famous mackeral fishing event at Teignmouth where one of the posters advertising the trip informed those wishing to attend that they would 'be dropped off at the pier'. The club also organised a yearly sponsored walk in aid of charities including Mencap and charities supporting Indian famine relief. Dances and discos were also a regular feature including the debut performance of a beat combo led by a certain Mr Graham Isaac. This performance took place during a violent thunderstorm which, from memory, led to the gig being cut short by a power cut.

Sadly, after three years, Silverton Youth Club in that form came to an end. Most of the core members moved on into employment, university or into developing more important relationships with members of the opposite sex. The club became steadily more managed by the adult advisors and was then faced with the need to increase its membership fees due to increased hall charges. It finally closed at the end of 1970.

In this age of increased regulation of youth activities it is difficult to imagine that such an organisation could ever be launched again. The SYC as it existed grew out of the increased confidence of the young people who grew up in the sixties that as part of the rapidly developing youth culture of the time they could sucessfully manage their social life within the community. That SYC suceeded as well as it did for three years and more showed that their optimism was largely correct.