The collection consists of Powell's research notes, typescript drafts and annotated copies of publications. They mainly relate to his work in editing the Navy Records Society volumes on General at Sea Robert Blake (1598-1657) and maritime aspects of the English Civil War. There are also transcripts of manuscripts and printed tracts from the seventeenth century that Powell used in his research.

Administrative / biographical background
Powell was born in the Wandsworth area of London in 1889, the son of the Reverend Arthur Herbert Powell and his wife Matilda Jane Powell née Hunt. He was educated at Sherborne School and Queen’s College, Cambridge. He was admitted to holy orders in 1913 and was a curate in various locations, including Peterborough, Limehouse in London and West Lulworth in Dorset, before in 1931 becoming vicar of Holy Innocents’ Church at Kingsbury. He served as a chaplain with the Yeomanry in the Middle East during the First World War. He edited several volumes for the Navy Records Society between 1937 and 1969. He was also on the council of the Navy Records Society for many years before serving as vice-president. He was also the author of ‘Robert Blake: General at Sea’, published by Collins, London, in 1972. He died at Bedford in 1980.