The Coffin Works share an unusual collection
We step into the heart of the Jewellery Quarter at the Coffin Works, a unique time capsule telling the story of this historic coffin furniture manufactory. I'll be discovering one particularly unusual collection that's kept here and finding out more about this special museum.
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00:00 So we're here at the Coffin Works Museum and there's many things that make this
00:03 place unusual and I think what makes it unusual is also what makes it special.
00:08 This factory closed in 1998 and the last owner at the time Joyce Green and the
00:14 workers they sat down their tools, they closed the door and many of them left
00:20 for the very last time. I mean as you look around this space here in the
00:25 office someone's left their shoes down there, they've left their coat hanging up
00:29 very expensive coat in the cupboard and a cardigan. There's a drinks cabinet which
00:34 is full of pale ale and sherry and there's cigars in there. There's a first-aid box
00:40 which is my favourite object in here which dates from 1943 and it's
00:44 completely full. People come in here and they look at the Gestetner and they say
00:49 I remember those, I remember how messy they were, they look at the typewriters
00:54 but what I love about the Gestetner is that there's a date on there that says
00:58 Wednesday 1st of January 1997 closed for Christmas. So presumably somebody in '96
01:06 was getting ready to close the Christmas holidays and that was one of the last
01:11 things they ever photocopied here, early form of the photocopier. So don't be put
01:16 off by what you think is unusual about this place, death and it's coffin
01:21 fittings because actually it's really about the workers and their stories and
01:27 the workers and their stories are as unique as the factory itself. But
01:34 actually what makes this place unusual is everything I've mentioned about
01:37 coffin furniture and coffin fittings, we can't get past that and this company
01:43 they didn't just make any old coffin furniture, they made the very best. They
01:48 made the world's finest coffin handles, back plates, breastplates, ornaments and
01:54 they were that good that they sold directly to the Royal Undertakers for
01:58 most of the 20th century. So many a king, queen and prime minister has ended up
02:04 with Newman Brothers coffin fittings on their coffins. So time has stood still in
02:09 this room as well, the shroud room or the sewing room and one of my favourite
02:12 objects in here, it's a little bit unusual, a little bit quirky, is the fact
02:16 that Newman Brothers, they made shrouds, so garments essentially for the
02:22 deceased, the dead, but not any old shrouds. They actually specialised in
02:27 football shrouds and here is our Aston Villa shroud there because the directors
02:33 at Newman Brothers were all Villa fans but they were democratic because they
02:37 knew that they couldn't produce a Villa shroud without a Birmingham City shroud
02:42 as you can see and here's a sample of what they looked like. There's so much
02:47 more to learn about at the Coffinworks Museum and we're open Thursday to
02:51 Sunday 11 o'clock to 3 p.m. Last tour or visit is at 3 p.m. You can book your
02:57 tickets online or you can just turn up but we'd love to see you so come and see
03:01 this great part of Birmingham's history.