The Archive of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, housed at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, comprises the most significant body of material relating to the social, industrial and product history of the British motor industry in existence, so you can imagine their delight when the Trust received news that its application for funding from the ‘Archives Revealed’ cataloguing programme has been successful. The scheme, which is supported by The National Archives, The Pilgrim Trust, the Wolfson Foundation and the Foyle Foundation, has awarded £281,258 to nine archives across the UK, with the Trust being awarded £30,000.
The grant will fund a project called The Art of Selling, focussing on a unique collection of sales and press material originating from British Leyland. Work will get underway in the autumn and at the end of the project in October 2019 the electronic catalogue will be put online, making information about this collection widely available for the first time. Running in parallel will be a social media campaign, new outreach programmes and the forging of new relationships with community groups.
Gillian Bardsley, Archivist at BMIHT said: “The British Leyland Collection is a fine example of an esoteric body of material which should not have survived, and yet its preservation opens up a rich vein of social and industrial history which has wide appeal. This funding will enable us to recruit a professional archivist and a small team of specialist volunteers who will sort and re-package the collection, opening it up to all who wish to use it.” For more information about the BMIHT archive visit: www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archive
