Charles Archive Collection

F.W.B. "Freddie" Charles (1912-2002) was an architect and nationally recognised expert on the conservation and repair of timber-framed buildings. Freddie and his wife, architect Mary Charles (nee Logan) (1924-2005) set up in practice in 1962 and were amongst the first to face the challenges associated with timber-frame conservation. They were involved with the restoration of many important timber-framed buildings during their career including over 250 buildings in Worcestershire, many of them of national importance. The practice also worked in a number of other counties including Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire (including Coventry) and Birmingham. Freddie died in 2002 and prior to his death the practice archive was deposited with the then Worcestershire Record Office and a number of other archive services geographically relevant to the locations where the practice had worked. In 2017 Historic England agreed to fund a project to make the practice archive of F.W.B and Mary Charles more accessible. Project aims included electronically cataloguing the archive, which up until that point had only been catalogued on paper, and creating a digital archive of important material that would be deposited with the Archaeology Data Service and made publically available.