News from Newman Brothers

The plating room is one of the areas being cleaned of chemical contamination

We are delighted to be able to tell you that this new year is off to a positive start at the former Newman Brothers Coffin Fittings Works on Fleet Street as decontamination work gets underway. This will remove the chemical residues from the former metal plating room and elsewhere on site to make it safe. An electrical sub station has also been removed.

We are told the ‘clean up’ should be completed by Easter, after which we may be able to offer a limited number of guided tours before the main restoration works begin. Watch this space for details!

We have been working hard behind the scenes preparing bids for funding and that’s where your expertise and enthusiasm can really help us – we need to raise lots of money and in these difficult times any fundraising that you can do to help us will be very, very welcome. We have a section on justgiving.com where you can donate or try some creative ways to raise funds for us.

This week one of our wonderful volunteers has started scanning some of the paper archives so that we can make facsimile copies of old catalogues, invoices etc. to use when we open the doors – probably in 2011. (If you are interested in volunteering, please email lucie.thacker@birmingham.gov.uk with your details.)

The other exciting development is that we have been working on the interpretation of the factory and have all sorts of interesting ideas which we are looking forward to testing on visitors who will be shown round after Easter.