It once made some of the world’s finest coffin furniture and now the landmark Newman Brothers factory in Birmingham’s historic Jewellery Quarter is to open to the public following a £1 million lottery grant.

The coffin fittings factory, which closed in 2003 after more than 100 years in the industry, will now be regenerated as a monument to the craft.

Birmingham Conservation Trust has been awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore the factory and undertake urgent conservation and repairs to the Grade II listed building and its contents.

• See more pictures, past and present, in the gallery to your right

The coffin works was at the centre of the coffin trade in Birmingham which at the time was the industry market leader in the 19th-century.

The factory, run by brothers George and Horace Newman, made fittings for the coffins of Churchill, Chamberlain and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Built in 1894, the coffin works is described as a typical example of a late 19th century Jewellery Quarter factory and today it is the last complete historic building remaining on Fleet Street.

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