A few years ago, the Pensions Archive Trust (PAT) ran a pilot project to map the holdings of archive material relating to occupational pensions held at archives and record offices around the UK.

It identified various sectors of industry and individual companies that had taken action to preserve their historic pension records so that they were accessible for researchers subject to complying with the data protection regulations in the case of personal material. The sectors reviewed covered railway companies, the motor industry, the retail sector, the postal service and the chocolate and confectionery industry.

The chocolate and confectionery industry with its well-known brand names was early into providing pensions for its employees. It is gratifying that today, even though our leading confectionery companies, are now part of global groups, their historical pension scheme records have been preserved.

Pension scheme information for Cadbury consisting of Trust deeds and rules, annual reports and accounts, correspondence, explanatory booklets and publicity material covering the period 1906-1980 is accessible to researchers at the offices in Birmingham of its US parent, Mondelez International. Similarly, pension scheme information for its associated company J S Fry & Sons covering the period 1920-1968 can also be viewed there.

Rowntree, which is now part of the Swiss company Nestle, also has extensive collections of its pension material archived with the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York covering the period 1862-1969. The Rowntree Pension Fund was established in 1906 following consultation with Cadbury and North Eastern Railway Co. The papers concerning this consultation and the advice taken when establishing the scheme are all available.

With the changes taking place in pensions today, sponsoring companies and trustees are encouraged to develop an archiving strategy for their pension schemes so that information is available for future researchers. PAT has developed an Archival Policy Guide for Pension Trustees and Managers to assist them, which can also be found on the PAT website.

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