Workshops at War

Workshops at War is a themed tour running at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter on Sunday 8 November, Friday 20 November and Sunday 22 November, with each session starting at 2:45pm and lasting about 45 minutes. It looks at the role Birmingham and the Jewellery Quarter played during the First and Second World Wars, back when the city was the single most important place in the country for munitions work.

The tour is led by the museum's award-winning historian and takes you through the Smith & Pepper workshop. Along the way, it brings out the personal side of the war effort — the loves, losses, family connections and service of the people who worked here — alongside stories of local bombing, a local silversmith who served as a soldier, and the migrant workers and women who stepped into the workshops. Once the tour is done, the guide demonstrates original machines used for munitions work dating from 1942, so you can see the actual kit in action.

It helps to know what the venue itself is. The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter occupies a perfectly preserved workshop: when the proprietors of the Smith & Pepper jewellery manufacturing firm retired in 1981, they simply stopped trading and locked the door, without realising they were leaving a time capsule for future generations. Today it's a museum that tells the story of the Jewellery Quarter and Birmingham's long history of jewellery and metalworking.

Tickets are £10 for adults, £8 for concessions and £6 for children. The tour runs at 2:45pm on Sunday 8 November, Friday 20 November and Sunday 22 November, and lasts roughly 45 minutes.