The collection consists of a vast range of material relating to folk plays and related subjects, including books and booklets, journal articles, audio and video recordings, unpublished works such as theses, dissertations and essays, and some ephemera.

The collection has been painstakingly assembled since the 1960s by Ron Shuttleworth who made it his aim to collect copies of everything that had been written on the subject of folk plays, and to provide access to the material to interested researchers.

Many of the works have been arranged in subject-based volumes such as “Hero-Combat”, “Wooing Plays”, “Longsword Plays”, etc, and a comprehensive database has been produced to enable researchers to navigate the Collection.

The database created by Ron Shuttleworth is available in the Special Collections Department by appointment.

Further information about the collection can be found on the Folk Play Archive website (see external documents section below).