How to contribute
What we are seeking
In time we hope to set up a collection process for digital archive: watch this space if you have film and video records.
The material could include items from other countries, from Remain campaigners and pro-EU groups, and material from the EU itself (eg the Raspberry Ice Cream War). We want to tell the full story. It’s a big one.
Please do remember some key details though. In particular, whatever is donated needs to come with a donation record. You can find that on a separate page on this website: just print it out, fill it in, and put it with the items. If there is more than one item and story to tell, then please fill out more than one form. We want to capture as much of the history as possible.
The following list is not exhaustive but might give you some ideas of what to look for in your loft;
- Relevant photographs
- Unique items, for instance, a draft speech from the Maastricht debate
- Symbolic items like placards, badges, posters, and campaign rosettes
- Personal items that come with a story
- Items associated with an event, such as a folding desk and associated street stall display from a specific campaign visit
Archives and printed literature, some of which would be important enough to go on display, could include
- Personal correspondence
- Diaries
- Books on the EU
- Pamphlets
- Campaign literature
Please do
- Bag items to help preserve them, and keep them together: ideally, in a transparent thick heavy-duty plastic bag.
- Fill in a donation record, so we can record for posterity the full story behind each item – one for each plastic bag, or item of high significance.
- Be patient! This is the work of volunteers.
- Offer to volunteer if you have spare time. Regional collectors may well need a helping hand at some stage, such as in logging bag contents to limit the risk of multiple identical donations, or helping with collections.
- Send us leaflets and books from all sides of the Brexit debate: we want to record the full story.
Please don't
- Send us lots of identical items. If you think there might be a good reason to do so, drop us a line first.
- Send a massive collection – such as the complete forty years run of a review – without first checking: we might already have the complete collection but are missing an edition from just one month.
- Expect anyone to rock up at your garage tomorrow with a van. Please liaise with the county points of contact to work out an arrangement: it might mean working out when someone you know might be passing near them with a car in a few weeks’ time.
- Don't expect the museum to be up and running any time soon. It will take years. But getting the wheels turning now gives us a chance of capturing the key artefacts, memories, and stories before they are lost to time
You’ll find donation drop-off points listed under Where to Contribute. Look for the nearest one and pop them a line to arrange to drop by when you are in the neighbourhood. Don’t forget to add a short donation record (see below) to capture the background. Feel free to type up a tale if there’s more to tell.
Where to contribute items
We built up a national network of 50 local drop-off points to rescue items at immediate risk of being lost – pictures, documents, memorabilia, and ephemera; things both for display in the museum and also held for researchers in the backroom archives.
The original list is below for reference. However, over 2023 these have been closing as we move to centralise in just two locations, in the West Midlands and London.
If you have items you want to donate, drop us an email and we’ll work out what’s the best way to get things to us. Often it will be simply popping something in the post, but with boxes, it’ll mean arranging a mutually convenient drop-off time when you are going to be in the neighbourhood.
NORTHERN IRELAND
County Down
Londonderry
WALES
Colwyn Bay (Conwy)
Caernarfon
SCOTLAND
Central Belt
NORTH WEST
Bury (Greater Manchester)
Clitheroe (Lancs)
Leigh (Greater Manchester)
Liverpool (Merseyside)
NORTH EAST
South Shields (Tyne and Wear)
YORKSHIRE AND HUMBER
Shipley (West Yorks)
Morley (West Yorks)
Doncaster (South Yorks)
Cleethorpes (NE Lincs)
Scarborough (North Yorkshire)
WEST MIDLANDS
Dudley (West Midlands)
West Bromwich (West Midlands)
Leominster (Herefordshire)
North Staffs
EAST MIDLANDS
Daventry (Northants)
Castle Bytham (Lincs)
Spalding (Lincs)
Derby (Derbyshire)
EASTERN
Hunstanton (Norfolk)
Peterborough (Cambs)
Ongar (Essex)
North Essex
Southend
LONDON
Hammersmith
Tower Bridge
Bromley
Sutton
Romford
SOUTH EAST
Winslow (Bucks)
Abingdon (Oxon)
Fareham (Hampshire)
Bishop’s Stortford (Herts)
Wokingham (Berks)
Epsom (Surrey)
Newdigate (Surrey)
Walton-on-Thames (Surrey)
Maidstone (Kent)
Broadstairs (Kent)
SOUTH WEST
Liskeard (Cornwall)
Portishead (Somerset)
Lyme Regis (Dorset)
Christchurch (Dorset)
North Wiltshire
Drop-off submission form
Additionally, the following organisations have been signed up nationally to the collection scheme;
Bruges Group – info@brugesgroup.com
The Freedom Association – mail@tfa.net
Democracy Movement – campaign@democracymovement.
Those engaged in the historic campaign by trade union campaigners can also help or arrange a drop-off by contacting here.
Of course, make sure you have printed off and filled in the record sheet and attached it to your donation – the form can be found here. It will save a lot of time later, and ensure the historical significance and context of all the items are fully recorded for posterity.
If you have for instance a large library in the EU that you no longer have space for, or have found a copy of the Magna Carta in your attic, please contact us directly below.