Parkes was sold to West Ham United in 1979 for £565,000, a world record for a goalkeeper at the time. It is reported that Sexton, who by then was manager of Manchester United, put in six bids for the player but saw them all turned down. It was only the half-million-pound bid from West Ham United that QPR chairman Jim Gregory could not resist. Upon John Lyall's signing of Parkes it was thought that he was a huge risk due to the severity of the condition of his knees but his signing was to pay off as Parkes was to remain first choice keeper for the next ten years. Despite this longevity, however, he only ever gained one piece of silverware, when West Ham beat Arsenal 1–0 to win the 1980 FA Cup Final.