Could you volunteer for Newman Brothers?

Work will soon begin on cataloguing and storing the contents of Newman Brothers, a critical part of recording the story of the building and the business and preparing for building work.

Hundreds of you have already had a chance to visit the building and for some you may be keen to get involved in this part of the project. So we are looking for:

Volunteer Cataloguers for the Coffin Works

At least one half day per fortnight over four months, starting in June 2007

The contribution of the volunteer cataloguer will be invaluable to the development of the Coffin Works project and to helping us understand the significance of the contents of the factory. Cataloguers will be given an initial induction and training for the role, and on completion of the task there will be the opportunity to comment on the proposals for the factory and its interpretation, as well as discussing possible future involvement in other roles, such as demonstrators or guides.

The role will involve some physical work, including lifting. It should be noted that the Coffin Works was a working factory using some fairly unpleasant chemicals. The risks from these have been minimised but cataloguers will be working in quite dirty and dusty conditions. The building has been unoccupied for a number of years so it is does leak when it rains and it is not especially warm. Volunteers will be expected to conform to the health and safety requirements of the site so protective clothing will be supplied. For more detail of the work please download this pdf briefing.

Oral History Volunteers

We will be able to give you more details of this soon, but the work breaks down into two main areas:

Recording oral histories related to Newman Brothers
Transcribing existing interviews from DVD into word documents.

The latter work can be done at home for those with a computer which plays DVD and has Microsoft Word or compatible software.

If you’re interested in helping with any of these please use the contact details above.

Thank you.