Purpose

The Museum Service reviews its outgoing loans on an annual basis. The items described in Appendix 1 have been on loan to a non-Accredited museum since 1978. Changing this long-term loan into a permanent transfer would have been considered sooner, but as the borrowing body is not an Accredited museum we have not done so.


Due to the closure of the National Brewery Centre in Burton in 2022, the National Brewery Heritage Trust can no longer care for the items as they did when the National Brewery Centre was open. Concurrently, an opportunity has arisen for the items to be permanently transferred to one of a number of fully Accredited museums in Staffordshire, in accordance with the terms of the Museum Service’s Collections Development Policy and Museum Association guidelines.


The disposal of these items will enable the Service to have higher levels of care for the remaining collections and make best use of our finite collections’ storage space. There is no space in either of the museum stores to take the items back. Should these items not be transferred to an alternative museum, if the National Brewery Heritage Trust terminate the loan, it would be necessary to procure additional and suitable space to store them. The transfer of the items will also ensure that these collection items will be with a museum which has the specialist skills needed to care for large industrial items.


In April 2026, the service was alerted to the deteriorating conditions of the items. The service subsequently visited the items to confirm that the items have deteriorated, and their relocation is imperative to prevent further deterioration.


If it is decided to dispose of the items, a second decision, an Executive Officer Delegated Decision, will be required to decide how the items should be disposed of. It is expected that this disposal will be transfer to an Accredited museum in Staffordshire. If more than one Accredited museum in Staffordshire wishes to acquire the objects, an expression of interest process and timeline will be circulated to all interested Accredited museums in Staffordshire. Following the expression of interest process, the Executive Officer decision will confirm the decided disposal of the items