JW Evans

Dr Anna Keay, Director of Properties Presentation
Introducing the Evans Project

In April 2008, English Heritage decided to save an extraordinary piece of Britain’s industrial heritage from dereliction by taking the unusual step of acquiring it for the nation.

JW Evans, a family silverware and plate manufactory at the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, will now be restored so that future generations can understand and appreciate a vitally important element of our industrial past.

JW Evans is a unique, living record of a trade that once made Birmingham, and indeed Great Britain, famous throughout the world. Run by the same family since the 1880s until the present day, its premises – tucked in behind an ordinary terrace of Victorian houses - is complete with equipment, tools, dies, pattern books, wage books, inventories, and accounts. It made the silver tableware that graced the dining tables of the Empire.