The Brass Band Archive gratefully accepts donations to the archive. We aim to preserve the Heritage and stories of brass banding across the Country, and we can only do this with the help of brilliant brass banders. Your donations will be preserved, cared for and accessible at the University of Huddersfield’s Archive, Heritage Quay.
The Brass Bands Archivist will discuss your donation with you, and if it fits within our collecting policy we will arrange the best way to get your donation to us. We will always endeavour to catalogue and transfer your donation to Heritage Quay as quickly as capacity allows, so it is accessible to the public as well as banders who want to see the material.
We ask all our donors to complete our Donation Agreement when new donations are donated to the Archive. The agreement, signed by both parties, transfers ownership of items and confirms how donations will be processed and cared for. Access our Donations Agreement here.
Our Collecting Policy sets out the material that we accept and can be found on our policies page.
The Archive will accept the following items of national significance:
- Original manuscript full scores of music arranged for brass bands
- Original audio-visual materials (e.g. vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, recordings of interviews and contests)
- Original photographs of bands, contests and bands persons only when they have a proven provenance
- Original published print materials related to brass bands, brass banding history and notable bands persons (e.g. books, journals)
- Original material related to brass band contests (e.g. programmes, registration cards of nationally significant performers)
- Other original materials deemed culturally and historically significant by BBE
The Archive will not accept the following items unless they are extremely significant and have a proven provenance:
- Musical instruments
- Trophies and awards
- Band uniforms
- Items in a poor physical condition which prohibits public access (where the cost of the necessary conservation treatment is disproportionate to their historical value)
- Duplicate material already in the collections (unless it is an original which will replace a photocopy already held in the collections)
- Reproductions of materials from other archives
- Photocopies of original materials
If you are interested in donating to the archive or just want any more information about the Archive please email us at archive@bbe.org.uk.