The Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust was established in 1981 by a small group of employees who took pride in the company's past achievements. The company agreed that action was necessary to ensure that the record of past endeavours was not lost, but circumstances at the time made it difficult to establish a formal Heritage Department.

When the employees proposed the setting up of a Trust as an independent extramural body, the initiative won the full support of the company. Space was found and other services provided, and the Trust began to grow.

To the delight of the small founding band, employees, past as well as present, and other enthusiasts began to join on the company's UK sites at Bristol, Coventry, Derby, Hucknall, Leavesden and in Scotland, at East Kilbride and Hillington. It rapidly became apparent that, with sites not only being geographically distant but also representing different ancestral companies and different product ranges, a headquarter and branch structure was necessary.

By the mid 1980s branches had been established in Bristol, Coventry, Derby - with an allied group at Hucknall, Leavesden and in Scotland.

The objectives of the Trust, its Branch structure, Corporate Heritage Office and publications are described. What must also be added is that the Trust has never sought direct financial support from the company. Its finances are derived from subscriptions from its world-wide membership and the sale of publications.

Objectives of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust

• Promote the history and engineering heritage of Rolls-Royce and its ancestral companies
• Advise the company in the preservation of material and on matters concerning the company's history
• Maintain safe custody of materials entrusted to it
• Research, record, arrange displays, and publish books
  Mount lectures on the company's history and engineering heritage
• Act as the company's authority on all matters of preservation of hardware and records for historic purposes and liase externally on these matters