The first time we met Dianne Tanner, we took her to St. Leonard's Crypt, two years later we're still hanging out in macabre places. Last weekend a group of us headed to the Coffin Works, which is an old Jewellery Quarter firm that produced some of the world’s finest coffin furniture.
The Newman Brothers were established in 1882 by Alfred Newman and his brother Edwin, the factory ceased trading in 1998. Much like the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, the Coffin Works shows off the shelves, workbenches, and original working machinery of the Newman Brothers factory. The workbenches are full of original stock and tools the workers would have used, complete with coffin adornments and shrouds.
Despite the name and industry they were involved in, the Newman Brothers factory isn't all that creepy or macabre. It was really interesting to learn about the production process, the materials used, and how even coffins were affected by changes in fashion.