This archive website and the underlying system of record has been kindly supported by the National Brewery Heritage Trust who have helped, and continue to support in cataloguing and digitising collection items.
The overall collection consists of a number of individual collections viz:
Bass Holdings – the majority owned by Molson Coors Brewing (UK) Ltd and the rest by Budweiser Brewing UK Ltd as a result of their acquisition of Bass;
Brewery History Society – owners of the Allied Brewery items;
Mansfield Brewery – who transferred their archives to NBC on closure of the business;
Burtonwood Brewery – who transferred their archives to NBC in 2019;
Bass Museum, NBC Library and National Brewery Heritage Trust owned items;
What do the archives contain?
Included in these collections is a vast range of material covering many UK brewers, both those who were the subject of acquisitions and mergers and many that weren’t. The information covers all aspects of brewing life from grain to glass.
However, it is not just brewery related material that is covered by the collections as in addition to the brewing collections, there are a number of small collections of a local nature including, Burton History, Burton Town Museum, Burton District Cricket League and Orton & Spooner Ltd with information ranging from local pictures to cricket to fairground attractions.
The collection started to be accumulated for the opening of The Bass Museum (later known as the National Brewery Centre) in 1977 as a celebration of the bi-centenary of Bass & Co. and has grown over the years through donations and transfers as noted above to its present scale.
What is not on this catalogue?
Although recorded in the underlying system of record, this catalogue does not include records about the Museum artefacts.
As yet, this catalogue represents less than 15% of our collection. Whilst cataloguing and digitising are ongoing, much of our material is not yet available online. If you have a question for which you cannot find an answer, please send an email to [email protected]
OR write to us at:
The National Brewery Heritage Trust, PO Box 8622, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, DE11 1HY
Structure of the Archive
This Catalogue contains around 30,000 items, each of which has a reference code that should be quoted in any correspondence or dialogue.
Coding Structure
The National Brewery Collection is known as an archive location by the code GB27779
Collection is the highest-level record type and each is given a three-letter code e.g. Bass Holdings Collection is BAH.
Fonds or Sub Fonds form the second level and again each is given a three-letter code e.g. Ansells Brewery Ltd is ANS
Series occupy the next level and their code is made up of two part. Firstly a repeat of the second level code plus one of the following codes:-
ACCT = Accounting Records
PROC = Brewing Process Records
CORP = Corporate Records
MARKT = Marketing Records
MISC = Miscellaneous Records
EQPT = Plant & Equipment Records
PREM = Premises Records
PROD = Production Records
SALES = Sales Records
STAFF = Staff Records
TRANS = Transport Records
RMAT = Raw Materials Records
COMM = Community Records
Accession Number is the last part of the code and is made of three parts as follows
Year. Sequence number within the year. Item
example 98.0155.09
So full code GB27779 BAH/ANS/ANSCORP/98.0155.09 would be an item from the Bass Holdings Collection relating to Ansell’s Brewery Ltd, which was the 9th item in a Corporate series which was the 155th accessioned in 1998.
In this case it leads you to Ansells Brewery Limited Directors’ Report, Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet 3 October 1948.
Other features
In addition to record coding, AtoM the underlying system of record, also offers the use of Access Points which are extremely useful in getting to information quickly when searching. All items in the catalogue, where known, have access points relating to Subject, Place, Genre and Name which are passed to this public facing catalogue.
Services offered
The services we offer in connection with the Archives are as follows:-
For personal use
We are currently reviewing the services available to the public. If you have a specific request, please get in touch with us by email or letter (addresses below).
For commercial use
- Commercial publication or exhibition of any exhibit-able asset;
- Community / Academic publication or exhibition of any exhibit-able asset.