When Daphne Oram died in 2003, her heir Martin Cook had the unenviable task of clearing Tower Folly, the oasthouse in Kent that had been Oram’s home and private studio since the late 1950s.  Martin asked for help from composer and musicologist Hugh Davies who knew Oram and her work better than anyone. The many recordings, scores, personal papers, software disks and more that Davies chose to save from Tower Folly form the basis of the present Daphne Oram Collection.

Soon after Hugh Davies died in January 2005, Colin Scales – husband of Oram’s niece Carolyn – collected the archive from Hugh’s widow Pam. Carolyn and Colin kept the archive for two years in their Yorkshire home. During this time, Martin Cook and the Oram family agreed that Carolyn should try to realise her ambition to form a charity promoting Daphne’s legacy.

Pam Davies put Carolyn in touch with Phil Hallett of Sonic Arts Network (now Sound and Music). He then met with Mick Grierson who had an academic interest in Oram’s work. At the time, Mick was a Creative Computing lecturer and researcher in the Computer Science Department of Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2007 Phil, Mick, Carolyn and Colin met at A1 / M62 Ferrybridge service station where Martin gave permission for the archive to be entrusted to Phil and Mick.

Martin and his wife Viv met Carolyn and Colin just before a symposium on Oram at The Southbank Centre, June 2008, and agreed it was time to form a charity. Later that evening they invited Mick and Phil, organisers of the symposium, to join them as trustees. On 21 November 2008 the six became founder members of The Daphne Oram Trust. Martin immediately gifted the archive and the rights he had inherited in Oram’s works to the Trust. Later the Trust would enter into a formal loan agreement with Goldsmiths College, University of London, for The Daphne Oram Collection – one that continues to today.

They also entered into a formal loan agreement with Goldsmiths College, University of London, that continues to today.

The Trust was formally registered as a charity on 12 March 2012,
Charity Commission registration number 1134910.

Pamphlet for the Oramics Symposium, Purcell Room, London, 27 June 2008. See Peter Manning’s perspective on Oram’s technical contribution –  talk presented at this event.