Collection has material related to the research carried out by Dr Sparkes for his PhD. There is also a large collection of brochures and trade literature collected from various national and international companies involved in the manufacturing of machine tools, along with technical bulletins.

There are also documents kept by him from when he worked at W H Kearns from various projects he was involved with and from trade and professional bodies such as The Machine Tool Trades Association, Production Engineering Research Association of Great Britain, the Machine Tool Industry Research Association and various governmental departments involved with industry and training.