The study covers the period 1958-1959. Papers are sorted into 51 files stored in two archival boxes.
Box one contains 3 files on the pilot stage; 9 files of interviews with Welfare Officers grouped by region; 11 files of interviews with owners/staff from homes for the elderly.
Box two contains 10 files of contextual information including diaries, correspondence, press releases, reports and questionnaires; 18 files of drafts of chapters for Townsend's publication The Last Refuge, including tables, analyses and printed ephemera.