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You can find our returns policy here.

Shipping charges are calculated at the checkout. You will see the shipping price before being asked to pay.

You can find more information about our shipping prices and policies here.

We ship to almost every country in the World from this website - the main exception being USA & Mexico.

USA & Mexico customers can order from Billingham USA at www.billingham.com. All orders despatched from Billingham USA are made in England but will ship from California.

Find more information on delivery policies and costs please see our Delivery Information section.

In simple terms ‘Canvas’ or ‘FibreNyte’ refers to the top layer of fabric on our bags, also known as the facecloth.

‘Canvas’ is a mix of cotton and polyester. ‘FibreNyte’ is completely synthetic. Canvas is hard-wearing, FibreNyte is very hard-wearing.

Both fabrics are bonded to a non-wicking polyester backing fabric, with a middle layer of butyl rubber. This butyl rubber layer makes both fabrics equally and very waterproof. Water cannot get through this layer.

Canvas is slightly softer to the touch whereas FibreNyte is slightly rougher to the touch.

If you would prefer your bag to age gracefully with a vintage look, our recommendation would be to choose Canvas. ‘Khaki Canvas’ fabric looks particularly lovely as it ages.

If you would prefer your bag to stay looking newer for longer, or if you are going to be working your bag hard, filling it, hiking, using very frequently etc. then FibreNyte would be a better option. We especially recommend FibreNyte if you are considering purchasing a completely black bag, as this will stay colourfast.

Sage FibreNyte and Navy Canvas are our most popular colours.

Both are hard-wearing - but FibreNyte is more hard-wearing.

Sewn into one of the seams of your bag should be a small, white label which has the bag model, the batch number and the colour and material combinations. Remember to look on the underside of the label too!

Our Canvas bags will either specify 'Canvas' or not state any material. For example, if the batch label says ‘Hadley Pro Khaki/Tan’ this means your bag is 'Khaki Canvas/Tan Leather'.

Our FibreNyte bags will specify FibreNyte as 'FN' or 'FibreNyte', in addition to the colour combination. For example, if the batch label says ‘Hadley Pro Khaki FN/Chocolate’ this is the Hadley Pro with 'Khaki FibreNyte/Chocolate leather'.

Some of our older bags were made out of Nytex and this label will state the colour of the outside of bag and will either have the word 'Nytex' or the abbreviation ‘NY’ on it. Nytex bags had a different waterproofing technology from our current bags - this was a polyurethane coating applied to the back of the fabric.

If you are still unsure which material your bag is, and would like to know, please email all the information you have and some pictures of your bag to help@billingham.co.uk.

To find a rough estimate of the age of your bag, you can look for the 'Billingham' label that is sewn into an outer seam of your bag. Previously, we would often specify the factory location your bag was made at. You can sometimes use these locations to judge their approximate age.

1973 - 1978 - Halesowen
1978 - 1980 - Old Hill
1980 - 1991 - Lye
1991 - 2011 - Brierley Hill
2011 - NOW - Cradley Heath

We no longer put 'Cradley Heath' on our Billingham label, therefore if you do not have a specific location, it was likely made after 2011.

You can also check out our Billingham Museum that gives the production dates of many of our bags that we no longer make anymore.

If you would like more specific dates, you can email us at help@billingham.co.uk with the following information and we can do our best to narrow it down for you:

• Photos of the outside and inside of the bag.
• Internal and external measurements.
• Batch number. This is a white label sewn into the seam somewhere in the bag (often underneath the flap of a front pocket). The underside of this label also has useful information.
• 'UI' serial number. If your bag has this, it will be in the back of the main compartment, in the back pocket or inside a front pocket. This number is always ten digits long usually starting with four '0000's.

Yes – Billingham bags are made to survive even the heaviest downpours. Between the face fabric and backing fabric, is a layer of butyl rubber that is impermeable to water. As long as you don’t damage the fabric then the bag should remain waterproof for its lifetime - you'll find many testimonials online from our customers that attest to this with bags sometimes decades old.

Because the butyl rubber is bonded into the middle of the fabric you do not need to apply waterproofing agents yourself, like you would with a coat or walking shoes, to maintain the waterproofing. Your bag doesn't need to be kept clean to remain waterproof.

We would always advise common sense when in the rain, for example please make sure that the top flap is properly closed and that your bag is in good repair.

Please note that some very old Billingham bags use different methods for waterproofing.

No, you don't need a raincover on our bags as the fabric of Billingham bags is waterproof - so raincovers are unnecessary. See the answer above.

We use top-grain, organic, vegetable tanned cowhide.

As its name suggests, top-grain leather is the uppermost part of the hide. Top-grain leather is strong, wears well and is surprisingly resistant to stains. We also use this leather as it shows natural features such as growth marks that can still be seen after the vegetable tanning process, which makes each hide unique.

If left untreated, leather would break down. To prevent this from happening, the hide needs to be preserved or ‘tanned.’ Images of people wearing leather are shown in cave paintings and the way our leather is tanned would probably be quite familiar to those artists. Rather than using some pretty unpleasant acidic chemicals, we use natural compounds such as tree bark and other organic matter – hence the name: ‘vegetable tanning.’

If you want to add extra protection to your leather you can find instructions here. The most important thing though is just not to put it in the washing machine!

In the past we have produced all leather bags, however Canvas and FibreNyte are our preferred materials as they are much, much lighter to carry. A bag made of our Canvas is 20-50% lighter than the same bag made in all leather (depending on the type of leather), this can make a real difference when you have to carry it all day!

Being sparing with our use of leather also means that we can make sure the leather that we do use is of exceptional quality. Our vegetable-dyed, top-grain cow-hide leather is sourced from the finest tanneries.

Yes, all Billingham bags are made in England and have been since 1973.

Simple! We think some bags look better with the logo and some look better without. They all still have a Billingham label sewn into the seam that will either be green or black.

Serial numbers or 'UI' labels can be found on all bags that were made after 2001. They can usually be found in either the back of the main compartment, one of the front dump pockets or the back pocket of the bag. The label will either be a white square label sewn into the bag with Martin Billingham’s signature on it, or a black label. Both labels will have ten digits on, usually beginning with four zeros.

You can see more info about our serial numbers here.

Any other numbers inside the bag are not the serial number and so shouldn’t be used for registration.

Bags made before 2001 will not have a unique serial number, but should have a batch number. Unfortunately we are not able to register these older bags through our serial number registration system, however we are looking at ways we might be able to accept registrations of them in future.

You can register your bag using the form here.

Please remember only bags with a 10 digital serial number (bags made in approximately the last 12 years) can be registered. See the notes about serial numbers in the question above.

Yes, we do offer a repair service.

Please find out more and subit your repairs enquire on our Repairs Service page.

We do not offer a cleaning service. However, you can find instructions to clean the bag yourself in our cleaning and care section.

Bear in mind we do offer a repair service - mentioned in the previous question.

We recommend purchasing a Billingham bag from this website, our US website (USA only) or from an authorised retailer that you can find on our store finder to ensure that you purchase a genuine Billingham bag. Purchasing a brand new bag will also ensure that your bag will be covered under our five year manufacturers guarantee.

Some of our retailers sell second-hand Billingham bags. Please be aware that if you purchase a second-hand bag, even if it is a genuine Billingham bag, it will not be covered under our five year manufacturers guarantee.

We strongly recommend against purchasing Billingham bags from eBay for a few reasons:

• Many of the models are incorrectly identified/named.
• Bags listed as ‘new’ aren’t always new.
• You may receive a bag that requires repairs or has missing accessories, such as padded dividers, both of which we would have to charge for. Whilst we do our best to support old products where practical, not all accessories that a very old bag might require are still possible to manufacture due to lack of materials or tooling.
• Particular bags to be aware of are the 5 series bags (225, 335, 445, 555) and 550, as we upgraded the Velcro and foam lining inside. To make older versions of these bags compatible with our current SuperFlex partitions is costly and requires the bag to be sent to us in England for ‘surgery’ where the bag is partially disassembled and then reassembled with the new lining.
• Our modern bags are waterproofed by a layer of butyl rubber bonded into the middle of the fabric. Our much older bags were made with natural rubber which unfortunately can degrade over time (usually 30+ years). Once the degrading has begun, it means the bag is no longer waterproof and this cannot be reversed or repaired. We upgraded to butyl rubber as soon as it became available, as it increases the longevity of our bags and is much more stable substance so is less likely to degrade in a similar way.
• Nytex bags were made waterproof with a polyurethane coating applied to the back of the fabric instead of a rubber layer. This too can degrade after several decades - a process that can't be reversed.
• Used bags are not covered under our five-year manufacturers guarantee.
  

There are lots of reasons transactions can be declined. Here are some common ones with advice about how to deal with them:

• You may have typed your 'Shipping Address' and 'Billing Address' incorrectly:
  - Double check that you haven't mixed up your 'Shipping Address' or 'Billing Address':
  --- 'Shipping Address' is where you want us to send it to.
  --- 'Billing Address' is where your payment method is registered to - where the bank sends letters and statements to etc.
• Your bank is worried that it might be a fraudulent transaction so decline to let the payment go through. If this is the case, you should be able to ring your bank and explain that the purchase was deliberate.
• Paying by PayPal instead of directly by card can often ensure your order goes through more smoothly. Signing up for a PayPal account is free and they accept most types of credit and debit card. In some countries PayPal also let you connect your bank account to pay by bank transfer.

Remember that we will only be able to post to the address you provide under 'Shipping Address' due to the rules of our bank. If you enter a wrong 'Shipping Address' let us know here so that we can cancel your order so that you can place a fresh order.

Yes we do! You can find it here: www.billingham.net.cn

Our name translates into Chinese as ""白金汉"". Our bags always arrive branded with the name ""Billingham"" , with a ""Billingham"" woven label sewn into the seam (and sometimes a Billingham leather logo too).

We don't have a physical shop. However, our bags are stocked by numerous retailers - you can find them here.

Please contact us and we can discuss the options available.