The Brewery History SocietyThe Brewery History Society's Archive:
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A brief overview of the Society's Archive: By Mike BrownThe following are linked pages giving a very high level look at the Archive catalogue - the full catalogue will appear in the fullness of time but as it runs to over 300 pages it will be some time before this is available. Click on your selection below if you wish to go straight to a catalogue. About the ArchiveThe Society's Archive is held at the Birmingham Central Library. The building is located right in the centre of Birmingham and is perhaps best travelled to by rail, being only 10 minutes walk from the station. It is possible to drive and park, but it tends to be expensive. The library is open Monday to Saturday, but the archive is closed on Wednesdays. The Archive is located on the seventh floor of the building. Head for the Genealogical Section on the sixth floor and then up the spiral staircase. As a matter of interest, there is an excellent set of trade directories covering much of the country in this Section. The library has a catalogue of our material and is working towards electronic access. In addition, we are looking to include a version within our own website. Bear in mind that the catalogue runs to over 300 pages, so you can imagine how much material we have managed to collect. Included in this article is an overview of the catalogue, which gives an indication of the material. Much of the original material came from the Brewers Society and includes some genuinely historical items. In some instances, the photographs, labels and drawings go back 50 years. In addition, we have been adding to the original material through member donations, salvaging from closed breweries and investment in books. We have around 250 books, including brewery histories, general texts on the industry and pubs and some technical publications. We also have several sets of Journals and Directories, such as: Brewers Journal from 1880, Brewing Trade Review from 1908, Manual of Brewers from 1899, Brewers Almanac from 1915. The magazines and papers include The Brewer, What's Brewing, and a nearly full set of BHS Journals and Newsletters from the beginning. Other societies such as the Labologists and Beermat collectors are also well represented and we now receive current copies. The collection also contains many local CAMRA branch newsletters, which often contain articles of research interest. If you wish to make a visit the staff are very helpful, although it can get busy at times. As well as our collection, they also hold the papers for Ansells, Davenports and Showells - however these have yet to be catalogued. Some of these papers came from the Allied Archives at Burton, which have been disposed of by Punch Retail. Ray Anderson has been organising the dispersal of the Allied material, so it’s worth checking with your local Record Office if you are about to undertake any research on an Allied concern – 70 or more have now received such material. At a time of further brewery closures, from the historian's point of view we can only be grateful that the firms have at least made some effort to save their past. At present Birmingham is in the process of planning to build a new archive and this means that they cannot accept any major deposits unless there is a clear threat to the survival of the material. However, local Record Offices are generally keen to take such historical documents, although their major problems are in cataloguing since this is very staff intensive. For further information, please contact the Society's Archivist by emailing archives@breweryhistory.com |
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