Trustees’ Week at the Coffin Works: Introducing Annette French
Introducing Annette, one of our new Trustees. Annette joined our Board in November 2022, but she’s been a champion of ours for a long time, even offering guidance for our Museum Accreditation journey a few years back. Here’s what it means to be a Trustee in the words of Annette herself: “I’d wanted to […]
Coffin Works awarded VisitEngland Hidden Gem Accolade
VisitEngland announced on Thursday this week the winners of its Visitor Attraction Accolades for 2022-2023, recognising the high-quality visitor experiences on offer across England. Following our recent VisitEngland Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme assessment, we’re pleased to share the exciting news that The Coffin Works has been awarded a VisitEngland Hidden Gem Accolade. This accolade is […]
From Yardley to Saxony to Sparkhill: Edwin Gordon Newman’s journey home
Adele Burns, the great-great granddaughter of Edwin Newman (joint founder of Newman Brothers) was recently in touch to update us on a bit of Newman-family history and how she’s been inspired to look into her Newman ancestry. She messaged saying that she’d discovered some information on one of Edwin Newman’s sons. Edwin had nine […]
Coffin Works Museum secures national accolade at the 2023 Museums + Heritage Awards!
The Coffin Works achieves ‘Highly Commended’ in the category of ‘Team of the Year’ at the Museum + Heritage Awards! You could say they were small fish in a big pond, as the Coffin Works’ Staff Team were up against the likes of the British Museum and UK Parliament, but nevertheless they flew the flag […]
A Census update
It’s been a year since we published our blog on the previously unknown Newman Brothers’ workforce we discovered as a result of the publication of the 1921 census. We were happy with that, but it appears that there’s even more out there and it’s the census that keeps on giving. We’ve found additional names to […]
A family found and a mystery solved (well, nearly)
Newman Brothers was established in 1882 by two brothers, Alfred and Edwin Newman. Edwin, born in 1856, was four years older than Alfred. The brothers entered into partnership as brass founders, making fittings for cabinets, from rented premises. But in 1892 they decided to commission a state-of-the-art manufactory, dedicated solely to the production of coffin […]
Food for Thought – A Special Day of the Dead Celebration
You’re invited to Food for Thought – A Special Day of the Dead Celebration with an exclusively cooked dinner followed by cake and drinks. Take a guided tour of our Stamp Room, discover how the Mexicans honour their ancestors, taste traditional festival foods, enjoy a film exploring the customs behind the annual ceremonies and join […]
Coffin Works wins ‘Small Visitor Attraction of the Year’
The Coffin Works Museum secured the prestigious award for ‘Small Visitor Attraction of the Year’ in the West Midlands Tourism Awards, in partnership with Visit England. The category commends small visitor attraction businesses providing truly memorable visitor experiences and demonstrating excellence across every aspect of the business. In order to be eligible to apply, the […]
It’s all in a name: finding Jane Saunders
A couple of weeks ago, I published a blog about our recent exciting research findings at Newman Brothers. Thanks to the 1921 census, we now have a host of new stories to explore and relay to our visitors. One of those stories is that of Jane Saunders. We’d never heard of her until the census […]
All the Single Ladies, Well Nearly
For International Women’s Day we’re looking back at our most recent research on the 1921 census and our theme is Working Women. Of the 32 employees at Newman Brothers in 1921, 14 were women. Of those 14, there were 11 women listed as ‘single’ and just 3 married women working. Incidentally there were nine married […]
Coffin Works receives Culture Recovery Continuity Funding!
The Coffin Works to receive £33,750 from third round of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund! The Coffin Works is among 925 recipients to benefit from the latest round of awards from the Culture Recovery Fund. This will pay for a mixture of staff wages, overheads and essential costs for the next six months. More than […]
The Coffin Works to receive £25,935 grant!
The Coffin Works, among more than 2,700 recipients to benefit from the latest round of awards from the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund. The Coffin Works in Birmingham has received a grant of £25,935 from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organisation recover and reopen. The Culture Recovery grant will pay […]
