5/5 Pato 4 years ago on Google
The
best
museum
in
Birmingham!
Excellent
guided
tours
around
the
factory.It
is
amazing
to
see
how
everything
keeps
working,
including
victorian
machinery.
You
travel
back
in
time
to
experience
how
Newman
Brothers
operated
during
a
regular
day.
Joyce
Green,
the
last
owner,
turned
her
attention
to
saving
the
building
and
preserving
a
rare
slice
of
this
country’s
industrial
history,
and
everything
still
is
the
same
way
the
factory
produced
the
last
coffin.
On
purpose,
everything
was
left
as
the
business
were
to
return
on
Monday.
You
even
get
to
see
how
she
left
the
shoes
under
her
table
in
the
office
room!
The
note
with
every
woman’s
tea
preferences,
which
Dolly’s
trolley
delivered
each
day
(she
begun
working
at
14
years
old
for
over
64
years).
Coffin
Works
was
established
in
1882
by
Alfred
and
Edwin
Newman.
Originally
they
made
cabinet
furniture
until
1894,
when
the
company
moved
to
the
present
site
and
began
to
specialize
in
the
production
of
coffin
furniture.
Coffin
furniture
covers
a
multitude
of
products
from
handles,
breastplates,
crucifixes,
decorative
ornaments
to
shrouds
and
robes,
and
therefore
more
money.
They
sat
the
client
and
gave
them
some
brandy
or
tea
while
they
decided
which
brass
was
meant
to
be
used,
which
color,
which
type
of
handle
or
decorative
ornament,
what
robe
and
which
color…
Inside
the
stamp
room
you
can
see
how
up
to
17
men
and
women
worked
together
in
a
12
hour
shift,
in
such
a
small
place
with
the
metal
oven,
the
gas
light
used
for
working,
the
people
smoking
inside…and
the
noise…in
terrible
conditions.
The
hard
work
in
the
“hammers”
were
done
by
men.
The
big
one
worked
every
5
seconds,
producing
a
great
shake
in
the
room;
as
the
smaller
ones
where
used
every
two
seconds,
normally
by
men
who
pulled
the
string
with
his
leg.
The
ladies
worked
by
the
window,
with
less
dangerous
machinery.
Upstairs
you
can
still
find
some
plastic
ornaments,
bronzed
handles,
nickel
plated,
crucifixes,
sacred
hearts…
There
where
differences
between
anglicans,
protestants
and
catholics:
these
spent
a
40%
more
than
the
others,
so
it
was
the
“best
market”.
You
can
also
find
old
masonry
signs
that
tells
us
they
used
to
order
Newman
Brothers
coffin’s
also
in
the
first
years.
By
1920,
every
coffin
made
for
rich
people
in
all
UK,
was
signed
by
Newman
Brothers.
Sir
Winston
Churchill,
Joseph
Chamberlain,
members
of
the
royal
family,
including
George
V,
George
VI,
the
Queen
Mother
and
Princess
Diana,
Cardinal
Newman…The
factory
produced
the
finest
up-market
coffin
furniture
in
the
world.
After
Alfred’s
death,
his
sons
Horace
and
George
took
the
business.
George
died
in
1944,
and
Horace
continued
until
he
died in
1952.
From
that
point,
and
for
the
majority
of
Newman
Brothers
time
in
business,
the
company
was
managed
by
a
small
group
of
shareholder
directors.
At
its
peak
in
the
1950-60’s,
the
company
employed
around
100
people
and
was
exporting
products
internationally.
The
last
owner,
Joyce
Green,
acquired
the
company,
working
her
way
up
from
office
secretary
in
1949
to
company
secretary
sometime
in
the
1950’s,
to
finally
sole
owner
of
Newman
Brothers
in
1989,
until
it
ceased
trading
in
1998.
The
Coffin
Works
continued
to
specialize
in
this
area
until
due
to
competition
from
abroad
and
failure
to
modernize,
they
were
forced
out
of
business
and
ceased
trading
in
1998.
One
of
the
central
factors
was
the
decrease
in
the
popularity
of
metal
coffin
furniture,
largely
facilitated
by
the
increasing
popularity
of
cremation
in
the
UK.
Injection
moulded
plastic
emerged
as
the
most
common
material
used
to
make
coffin
fitting.
Whilst
Newman
Brothers
did
produce
a
single
range
in
plastic,
they
were
generally
unwilling
to
compromise
their
reputation
(and
the
benefits)
as
manufacturers
of
the
highest
quality
goods.
Joyce
Green
led
the
fight
for
the
factory's
restoration
as
a
museum
following
the
company's
collapse
in
the
1990s,
not
wishing
to
see
the
building
redeveloped
or
the
company's
social
history
forgotten.
The
restoration
took
place
between
July
2013
and
September
2014
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