A Heritage Lottery funded project of the Charles Parker Archive Trust in partnership with Birmingham City Archives
The aim of this project was to digitise original sound recordings which exist on reel to reel tape, made by the radio producer Charles Parker (1919-1980), and to store the recordings on CD-ROM. This would enable their preservation and, with the addition of a catalogue of the contents, make them accessible to users. See project description for further details. There is an online catalogue of all this material on the British Library website Discovery (previously known as Access to Archives or A2A) and some links to that site are included below.
The recordings, chosen from Charles Parker’s substantial archive, were divided for cataloguing purposes into traditional performances, lectures, revival performances, and discussion of performance.
Table of Contents (this can also be downloaded as a Word document)
MS 4000 The Charles Parker Archive: ‘A Future for Ordinary Folk’ Project
MS 4000/5 Digitised Sound Recordings A2A link
MS 4000/5/1 Sound recordings of interviews with traditional folk performers and folk music collectors. Related performance material, folk music and folk song both local and international. A2A link
| MS 4000/5/1/1 | Harry Cox – 11 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/2 | Harry Horton – 1 item A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/3 | Betsy Miller – 8 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/4 | Wednesbury Folk Singers – 23 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/5 | Joe Heaney – 4 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/6 | Mrs Cecilia Costello [Closed to the Public] |
| MS 4000/5/1/7 | Charlotte Brooks – 12 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/8 | Charlie Burke – 4 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/9 | George Dunn – 17 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/10 | Captain Alfred Ernest Horton – 19 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/11 | English folk music and song: general – 39 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/12 | English and Scottish Song (Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger) – 11 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/13 | Francis J. Child: Ballads (England and Scotland) – 8 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/14 | England Series: 1-12; ‘England A’ Roving’ – 18 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/15 | Scottish Folk Music – 4 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/16 | Ireland Series -14 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/17 | Irish Folk Music – 6 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/18 | Travellers and the West Midlands Gypsy Liaison Group (WMGLG) – 12 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/19 | Greece: Traditional music from Mount Pílio Peninsula, Central Greece and Samarina, Píndhos Mountains, Western Greece – 12 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/1/20 | World Music – 29 items A2A |
MS 4000/5/2 Sound recordings of Lectures and teaching materials relating to folk music and the oral tradition. A2A link
| MS 4000/5/2/1 | Workers’ Music Association (WMA) Summer School 1961 at Wortley Hall, South Yorks – 5 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/2/2 | Workers Educational Association (WEA) Lectures, Birmingham – 21 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/2/3 | Keele University 1965, Popular Arts Residential Course – 5 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/2/4 | NATE Lectures (National Association for Teaching English) – 7 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/2/5 | TRACT Publication – 3 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/2/6 | PCL Lectures (Polytechnic of Central London) – 23 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/2/7 | Lectures and student work: general – 40 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/2/8 | Lectures and student work: miscellaneous [found with other lectures and teaching materials] – 36 items A2A |
MS 4000/5/3 Folk Revival Performance material. A2A link
| MS 4000/5/3/1 | Alan Lomax – 15 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/2 | A. L. Lloyd – 39 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/3 | Folk Revival Singers – 12 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/4 | ‘Of One Blood’ – 3 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5 | Birmingham and Midland Folk Centre (BMFC) A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5/1 | Concerts – 17 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5/2 | Radio Programmes – 6 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5/3 | Seminars and Lectures – 91 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5/4 | Grey Cock Folk Club – 187 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5/5 | Field Recordings and New Songs – 51 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5/6 | BMFC Performance – 26 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/5/7 | BMFC Miscellaneous – 4 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/6 | Grey Cock Folk Club (Miscellaneous) – 20 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/7 | Parkhouse Convention – 4 items A2A | ||
| MS 4000/5/3/8 | Popular folk/rock music groups – 5 items A2A | ||
MS 4000/5/4 Discussion of folk music and performance. A2A link
| MS 4000/5/4/1 | Ewan MacColl: Classes and Teaching – 23 items A2A |
| MS 4000/5/4/2 | Critics Group – 252 items A2A |
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