Charles Parker Archive

The Charles Parker Archive is deposited in the Archives and Heritage Service on the Sixth Floor of Birmingham Central Library. It consists of tapes, production books, papers, correspondence and scripts for most ot the programmes Charles Parker produced and the organisations in which he was active.

Charles Parker came to believe passionately in the value of the testimony of working people and the creative importance of 'the oral tradition' and its relationship to folk music. This became the key to his work in radio, theatre and in his extensive teaching activities

Charles Parker kept everything, and everything he kept is held in this collection

- The tapes he recorded and worked with

- Transcriptions and working notes

- Production books and notebooks

- Newspaper cuttings

- Letters sent and received

- A library of books on international folk music and culture, politics, history, religion

After his death in 1980 a Trust was set up to administer the Archive.

The contents of the Archive have been converted to digital media for easier access.

An online catalogue of the whole archive will become available in 2010.