Commercial GREATS

Sam Savelli offers an exclusive look inside Britain’s largest treasure trove of vintage adverts

Deep in the countryside of East Anglia, in a village called Raveningham near the Norfolk-Suffolk border, it would be understandable

to think you were in just another small and obscure British farming village that boasts nothing but agriculture and a population you can count on your fingers.

But take a closer look. A set of buildings tucked away on the Raveningham Estate that from the outside seem an ordinary barn complex has on one side a small plaque that reads: “THE HISTORY OF ADVERTISING TRUST.”

If you step into those buildings, you will enter a fully functioning, environmentally controlled archive that holds the largest collection of British advertising in the world, with more than 10 million assets relating to advertising history. From Beanz Meanz Heinz to John Lewis at Christmas, the promotions of every brand you can think of from our country’s commercial history are carefully preserved by the History of Advertising Trust (HAT).