Jewellery Quarter's Coffin Works joins Concorde with a top engineering heritage award

It is not every day a small Birmingham museum finds itself in the company of Concorde and the Thames Barrier. But that is exactly where the Coffin Works now sits, after receiving an Engineering Heritage Award from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).

The award was presented at a ceremony at the museum on 25 March 2026. Previous winners include Concorde, the Jaguar E-Type, the Old Coalbrookdale Ironworks and the Thames Barrier, and the Coffin Works was recognised as the first purpose-built manufactory to secure the honour.

The Newman Brothers manufactory is one of the most complete historic factories surviving in the Jewellery Quarter, with original workshops, drop stamps and fly presses, and thousands of dies. The museum says it is the last coffin furniture manufactory of its kind in the UK, the oldest in existence and the only surviving example of its type. The firm produced fittings for the funerals of Winston Churchill, Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.

What makes a visit special is that the machinery still works. Staff and volunteers operate it for the public, so visitors can see, hear and feel how the factory once ran.

"Our museum also provides a space for people to embrace nostalgia," said Sarah Hayes, Museum and Trust Director, recalling how visitors often say the Stamp Shop "smells like their dad's shed", while the sewing machines in the Shroud Room spark stories of mothers and grandmothers making clothes.

Chair of Trustees Benjamin Parker added: "Coffin Works has always been about community; the workers who built its legacy, the volunteers who protect it, and the visitors who continue to be inspired by it."

Volunteers are at the heart of the place. In 2024 the museum was shortlisted in the Museums + Heritage Awards Volunteer of the Year category in memory of Vickie Jones, a much-loved volunteer since 2015 who once planted 200 bulbs in the courtyard.

The museum has won an award every year since opening in 2014, including the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in 2019. Its events range from family Halloween fun to film nights, and tickets and tours can be booked on the Coffin Works website.