Key Hill Cemetery

Key Hill Cemetery

Key Hill Cemetery in the Autumn. The Jewellery Quarter station of the Midland Metro is behind the wall
Details
Established 1836
Location Hockley, Birmingham
Country England
Coordinates 52°29′28″N 1°54′54″W / 52.491°N 1.915°W / 52.491; -1.915Coordinates: 52°29′28″N 1°54′54″W / 52.491°N 1.915°W / 52.491; -1.915
Website fkwc.org
Gates and railings on Icknield Street - listed monument
1903 Ordnance Survey map

Key Hill Cemetery, (OS grid reference SP059882), originally called Birmingham General Cemetery, a Nonconformist (non-denominational) cemetery, is the oldest cemetery (not being in a churchyard) in Birmingham, England.[1] It opened on 23 May 1836. Located in Hockley, the city's Jewellery Quarter, it is one of two cemeteries there (the other being Warstone Lane Cemetery). It is no longer available for new burials.

Many of the fittings and memorials are of architectural and artistic merit - the entrance gates (piers by Charles Edge)[2] and railings are Grade II listed.[3] The Greek Doric chapel by Charles Edge has been demolished.[2] The cemetery is itself grade II* on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. A campaign group, the Friends of Key Hill & Warstone Lane Cemeteries, lobby to have the cemetery restored. The entrance piers and gates on Icknield Street have now been restored and further works to the entrance at Key Hill are planned to commence in 2010/2011.

Burials

A comprehensive record of memorial inscriptions of existing memorials (and of some of those removed by B'ham City Council) may be consulted through The Jewellery Quarter Research Group's web site at: http://www.jqrg.org

Notable people buried there include:

War Graves

There are 46 Commonwealth service war graves in the cemetery, commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 38 from the First World War (mostly in section L, none marked by headstones) whose names are listed on a Screen Wall memorial, and eight from the Second.[6]

References

  1. In The Midst of Life - A History of the Burial Grounds of Birmingham, Joseph McKenna, Birmingham Library Services, 1992, ISBN 0-7093-0188-X
  2. 1 2 Pevsner Architectural Guides - Birmingham, Andy Foster, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10731-5
  3. Historic England. "Grade II gates (217322)". Images of England.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Official Guide to the Birmingham General Cemetery, E. H. Manning, Hudson & Son, Livery Street, Birmingham, 1915. Birmingham Public Libraries (Reference, Local Studies, B.Coll 45.5)
  5. Wargs, ancestry of Catherine E. Middleton. "Ancestry C. E. Middleton". Wargs. Wm Addams Trust. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  6. CWGC cemetery report.

External links

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