Hard Hat Tour at The Coffin Works, Fleet Street, Birmingham Jewellery Quarter - 15 September 2013

Last Sunday (15^th September 2013) during Heritage Open Day, My wife and I were fortunate enough to attend an 'Hard-Hat' inspection of The Newman Brothers Coffin Fittings Works at Fleet Street in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter.

Now I'm currently going through a bit of a love affair with the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham truth be told, so I was really quite excited to visit this place which is on course for being a real heritage treasure for the community. 

The factory was built in 1874 and is Grade II listed. It has achieved celebrity status whilst it was open, and again when it was closed. When the factory was operating it produced fittings for the coffins of Winston Churchill, Joseph Chamberlain and Diana, Princess of Wales. When closed it attracted the attention of the BBC, reaching the finals of the first 'Restoration' series in 2003.

The place is similar to the Smith and Pepper Jewellery Works (which is now the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter) in the sense that when the factory closed (in 1998), it was abandoned with all fixtures and fittings intact. 

The building fell into extreme dilapidation, and it has been quite a challenge to find the money to restore the building sympathetically. To this end, The Birmingham Conservation Trust has been working hard over the past ten years in order to raise the funds. For the most part this has been achieved (although a few extra quid wouldn't come amiss if you feel like donating something!), and the target for opening the building to the public generally appears to be on-track. 

Naturally in these days of nobody giving a stuff about history, the project needs to pay for itself from the word go. So parts of the building will be converted into units for workshops / offices for 'creative' companies. There will also be a heritage centre for history nuts like me! 

In order to get to the Coffin Works, we had to travel through Newhall Street, past the site of the old Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry. I couldn't resist taking a photograph of the site as it is now. Nostalgia folks who consider that the expensive and superficial 'ThinkTank' project a bad move (with its whizz-bang, its primary colours, its buzzwords, and very little else) may choose to weep here:

Upon arriving at the Coffin Works (an hour early), We were greeted by a friendly face who informed us that we could join the current tour in order to save us waiting for the next one. Ah, there are humans here! 

On entry (after each being issued with a reflective jacket and hard hat) the group were made welcome by members of the Birmingham Conservation Trust, and also by Ian and Chris from the restoration company Fairhurst Ward Abbots Ltd. 

This company are dealing with the methodical reconstruction of the building. Like all enthusiastic people, Ian and Chris were positively brimming over with information to impart - supplemented with a healthy dose of history from Barbara Nomikos who spoke about (and shown) some of the wonderful artefacts discovered in the factory. These treasures are being catalogued and researched even as you read this, and will make fascinating viewing when the heritage centre opens in 2014. Here are some photographs that we took of the industrial wonders to be found at the site during the event:

 

Photographs were also taken by Tracey during the talk. Tracey is another BCT volunteer. With all the flash-guns going off due the subdued lighting conditions, some of the non-camera attendees must have thought that they were attending a Rock Concert: Sorry!

I would like to wish all the very best and to thank all those involved on the day for making us feel so welcome, treating us like adults, and allowing us to have a share in one of the most exciting heritage projects to grace Birmingham for quite some time. I will be following this project closely, and will report more on the project via this blog as and when.

I must say that it is such a fantastic change to spend a heritage day actually learning something, rather than just pointing and gawping. To all of you history buffs out there, this project is seriously worthy of your support. If you are able to help in any way, please don't hesitate! the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter scores yet again!

STOP PRESS!

Birmingham Conservation Trust are holding a talk about The Coffin Works on 1st October 2013 at the Birmingham and Midland Institute. Full details here. Don't miss it!

  

Links and further reading:

The Birmingham Conservation Trust website has some fantastic blog pages on the Coffin Works, with lots of additional photographs taken at various stages throughout the restoration project. Of particular interest are the pages dealing with the early restoration works, and the archive material found in the building.

There are also additional reports on the hard hat day here and here, and more photographs available form this site.

Photographs and Videos taken by Graham and Yvonne High, © 2013.

Museum of the Jewellery Quarter: Jeweller's Workshop Talk, 3rd August 2013

In lieu of another substantive blog entry, I would like to share with you a HD video of an excellent talk from the Birmingham Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, at 75-80 Vyse Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6HA. 

The video was shot in the Jeweller's Workshop. This was during the 12:00 guided tour which was excellent from start to finish.

My first impressions of visiting the Museum were rather tainted by the lady at the admission / information desk who had obviously got out of bed the wrong side. I think this person hasn't yet quite got Birmingham City Council out of her bloodstream, as she was very brusque dealing with questions about how the museum worked. Perhaps she should take a moment to reflect that just because she knows about the place, it does not follow that everyone else does.

Bizarrely, both my wife and I were informed that if we booked a place on a guided tour, we had to wait until the next scheduled one in the assigned space upstairs. This applied even when the next scheduled tour was some time off. If we did not do this, or if (gasp!) we left the building for a few moments (presumably to look around the Jewellery Quarter generally, or - god help us - get a cuppa somewhere else) she would vacate our tour booking. If this is a policy approved by the Birmingham Museums Trust, it is a moronic one.

This brand of stupidity is borderline defensible for a council-run free admission establishment, but a private trust trawling for supporters treats paying customers this way at their peril: Take heed.

Dictatorial silliness notwithstanding, I was happy to have stayed around long enough to get just a small flavour of this vital part of Birmingham's heritage. 

The chap featured in this video was superb, and the practical demonstrations given brought the Smith & Pepper company back to life (if only for a few moments, and albeit in a health and safety friendly way). 


Teething problems aside, this museum is a worthwhile place for anyone interested in British industrial history to visit. Make sure you book a tour upon admission though, as you will be unable to visit the workshop unless you are part of a group. When you go in the workshop you will understand why.

Click here to visit the website of the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter.

More about this visit and my exploration of other BMT sites to follow anon.