A family silverware works in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, left almost exactly as it was when it closed in 2008
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Jenkin Evans started this silverware works in 1881, in the thick of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, where hundreds of small family firms once turned out rings, cutlery and tableware. His family ran it for three generations, making everything from gravy boats to candlesticks. A die-sinker hand-cut each pattern into a block of steel, and a drop-stamper then drove a heavy hammer down to press sheet metal into that shape.
Trade slowed through the 20th century as fashions moved on and cheaper methods took over; in 2008, after 127 years in the same family’s hands, the factory shut its doors for good. English Heritage bought the building and its contents as they stood, down to thousands of steel dies and the workers’ own tools, and spent the next few years repairing it before opening the factory to visitors in 2011.
You can only see inside on a guided tour, and you’ll need to book ahead. The Birmingham & Fazeley Canal runs close by, and Back to Backs across town, another slice of Birmingham’s working past restored as a museum, makes a natural pairing. Jewellery Quarter station is a few minutes’ walk.
