The National Brewery Centre Archives’ historical collection of brewing-related information and images is now available to consult online
The creation of this online database has been supported by charity the National Brewery Heritage Trust (NBHT).
The National Brewery Centre Archives feature around half a million items spanning 250 years of British brewing history. Currently, about 5,000 items of this ever-growing collection are publicly displayed at the National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent, while many more are now free to access on the newly launched online database.
‘Our aim is accessibility so we’re delighted that we’ve been able to start cataloguing our unique collection of brewing and pub heritage and opening on-line access for people to use for research, education and general interest,’ said NBHT chairman Harry White, commenting on the launch.
‘We’ve started by digitising many of the more popular items in the collection, such as photos of historic pubs, breweries, brewing equipment, packaging and advertising, but this is a work in progress and more records and images will be added to the catalogue day by day.’
The archive’s collection covers a number of different aspects of Britain’s brewing heritage, from advertising to farming, and from industry personalities to influential brewing firms and pub companies.
This £50,000 digitalisation project has taken two years so far, and has benefited from a crowdfunding campaign, corporate and individual donors, as well as grants awarded by a number of organisations including the Consolidated Charity of Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire Community Foundation, the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Brewers’ Research Education Fund.
The online archive can be accessed at nbcarchives.co.uk/.
