Brent Museum and Archives awarded £45,900 grant to catalogue Brent Trades Council collection

 Brent Museum and Archives (BMA) has been awarded £45,900.71 from The National Archives’ 'Archives Revealed' grant programme to catalogue a significant local archive collection – the Brent Trades Council collection.

Brent Museum and Archives, located in The Library at Willesden Green, preserves and showcases the history of the London Borough of Brent. It houses a vast collection of over 10,000 objects, including historical documents, photographs, and artifacts as well as council records, local newspapers, and more. 

With this funding, the museum will undertake a detailed cataloguing project of the Brent Trades Council (BTUC) archive, which documents the organisation’s involvement in a wide range of local and national campaigns and social justice issues from the 1960s through to 2013.

The Brent Trades Council is the community branch of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for the London Borough of Brent. It represents union members from organisations including UCU, RMT, GMB, CWU, Brent NEU, and various Unite branches, working in solidarity to champion workers’ rights and social activism.

The cataloguing project will deliver access to this vital collection, enabling local communities, schools, and researchers to explore Brent’s rich history of trade unionism and political activism. BMA will also use the BTUC’s archives to create greater engagement with the borough’s diverse communities and encourage conversations about Brent’s past and present identity.

The project is expected to be completed over the next year, with the collection becoming fully accessible for public use and academic research.