The Brewing Industry: Archive Report | PDF - English Heritage

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website http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/ provides a limited amount of free access, while further access can be paid for by individual subscriber and the whole site is available free of charge in some public and other libraries. Note that archives of a local brewery may not always be held locally, and even if there are holdings, they may not yet have been catalogued. Contact local repositories directly to enquire about access to specific archives. There may also be material located in repositories abroad. Of course, many business records are still held by operating breweries. Conversely, former breweries may have virtually no archival material at all. In this case the use of other sources such as local newspapers, obituaries, directories and census returns may be necessary. The article by Peter Mathias, Brewing archives: their nature and use (1990), provides an excellent introduction to the scope and potential pitfalls of research into the brewing industry. See also Gutzke (2005) for guidelines on writing historical articles related to the brewing industry. 7 Dealing with archival problems resulting from brewery closures Some brewery closures take place over a long period, and it should then be possible to plan ahead, in conjunction with the relevant local depository (see section 8), if the company concerned wishes to deposit archival material. If possible, build a relationship with the company over the long term, with the aim of ensuring that as much archival material is safely deposited well before closure. In an emergency, when a plant closure is imminent and archives are endangered, the first move is to attempt to establish relations with the company, in order to assist them in dealing with what they may perceive only as a short-term space problem. Try to obtain access to the archive material, and make an initial survey of what is particularly important; it may be possible to obtain help from a local repository. Even at this late stage it may be worth trying to encourage the company to gift or loan at least some of their material to a depository, rather than simply get rid of it as waste. If the company will allow access and removal of material, but nothing else by way of support for moving the archive, then the Brewery History Society or a local repository may be able to offer assistance. As the rescue of the Allied Breweries Archive (see section 3) showed, it is an extremely time-consuming and costly task to sort, pack and disperse a large amount of material when a deadline is in sight. 8 Guidance on depositions The Business Archives Council’s website www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk is a useful source of information for potential depositors of records. It advises that many businesses may not realise that their historical records can be a valuable research resource; records can sometimes be seen simply as taking up valuable office or warehouse space. Most archive repositories maintain policies of free public access. Any deposit of records can be made either as a gift or as a long-term loan, although most repositories prefer the records to be gifted, avoiding future ownership and copyright issues. The chances of a repository accepting a collection are greater if it is comprehensive, that is it has not been ‘cherry-picked’ by the company for items of obvious interest or value. A repository may have to be tempted to accept a collection by the offer of exceptionally interesting or rare items. Most local repositories have websites that carry information for depositors, setting out the kind of records in which they are interested, their geographical area of collection and their terms of agreement for gifting or loans. They may also offer advice as to which items are of historical importance. A searchable list of local repositories - the ARCHON Directory - may be found on the National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/default.htm 9 Brewing artefacts Although paper archives are well served by the various record offices, the situation is not as good for artefacts; there is no national brewing museum. Little brewing equipment appears to currently be preserved by the national museums, although many items from the Whitbread Archive were donated to museums in 2001. Until its closure in June 2008, the Coors Visitor Centre (previously Bass Museum of Brewing) at Burton upon Trent was in effect England’s only national brewing museum. The site is due to reopen in April 2010 as the National Brewery Centre. 3
10 References and websites The Whitbread Archive, Catalogue of sale held 14 November 2001 (Phillips Auctioneers, Solihull, 2001). Ray Anderson and Mike Brown, ‘Saving the Past: The rescue of the Allied Breweries Archive’, Brewery History, 112, Summer 2003, pp48-59. David W. Gutzke, ‘Some guidelines for writing historical articles’, Brewery History, 120, Autumn 2005, pp35 -42. David W. Gutzke, Alcohol in the British Isles from Roman times to 1996: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1996). Michael Jones, Time, Gentlemen, Please! Early brewery posters in the Public Record Office (PRO Publications and Vaux Breweries, London, 1997). Peter Mathias, Brewing archives: their nature and use, pp23-31 in Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton (eds), The brewing industry: A guide to historical records, (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1990). Lesley Richmond and Alison Turton (eds), The brewing industry: A guide to historical records (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1990). Access to Archives: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/ Brewery History Society: www.breweryhistory.com British Newspapers 1800-1900: http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/ Business Archives Council: www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk English Heritage: www.english-heritage.org.uk Heritage Gateway: www.heritagegateway.org.uk Images of England: www.imagesofengland.org.uk Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick: www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/ National Brewery Centre: www.nationalbrewerycentre.co.uk National Brewing Library: www.brookes.ac.uk/library/speccoll/brewing.html PastScape: http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk Scottish Brewing Archive: www.archives.gla.ac.uk/sba/default.html Society of Archivists: www.archives.org.uk ViewFinder: http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk 4
Page 1 and 2: The Brewing Industry: Archive Repor
Page 3 and 4: The Brewing Industry: Archive Repor
Page 5 and 6: Contents 1 Major repositories of br
Page 7: 2 Whitbread Archive The Whitbread A
Page 11 and 12: East Sussex Record Office Star Brew
Page 13 and 14: Daniell & Sons Breweries Ltd, Colch
Page 15 and 16: The Record Office for Leicestershir
Page 17 and 18: Worksop & Retford Brewery Co Ltd, b
Page 19 and 20: National Science Museum Library Jos
Page 21 and 22: Corporation of London, Guildhall Li
Page 24: If you would like this document in

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