A major feature is the two tiers of catacombs, whose unhealthy vapours led to the Birmingham Cemeteries Act which required that non-interred coffins should be sealed with lead or pitch.
History
1920 aerial photo, with Birmingham Mint in the foreground
On the night of 11 December 1940, all but the tower and classical west portico of St Thomas' Church, Bath Row, was destroyed by German bombs. The church was not rebuilt. The grounds were laid out for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 when the gravestones were removed and the dead reinterred at Warstone Lane Cemetery. The gardens were re-designed as the St. Thomas's Peace Garden in 1995 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.
A comprehensive list of memorial inscriptions is being prepared by The Jewellery Quarter Research Group, to be published on its website.
A campaign group, The Friends of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries, seeks to preserve and protect the cemetery.
Notable burials
Warrulan (circa 1835–1855) – an Aboriginal Australian, brought to England in 1845
John Baskerville (1706–1775) – manufacturer, reinterred here in 1897: an atheist
There are also buried in the cemetery 51 Commonwealth servicemen of World War I and 13 from World War II. A Screen Wall memorial, by a Cross of Sacrifice, lists those whose graves are not marked by headstones.[4]
Key Hill Cemetery,, originally called Birmingham General Cemetery, is a cemetery in Hockley, Birmingham, England. It opened in 1836 as a nondenominational cemetery, and is the oldest cemetery, not being in a churchyard, in Birmingham. The principal entrance is on Icknield Street to the west, with a secondary entrance on Key Hill to the north. The cemetery contains the graves of many prominent members of Birmingham society in the late 19th century, to the extent that in 1915 E. H. Manning felt able to dub it "the Westminster Abbey of the Midlands".
Hockley is a central inner-city district in the city of Birmingham, England. It lies about one mile northwest of the city centre, and is served by the Jewellery Quarter station. Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter continues to thrive in Hockley, and much of the original architecture and small artisan workshops have survived intact.
Anfield Cemetery, or the City of Liverpool Cemetery, is located in Anfield, a district of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It lies to the northeast of Stanley Park, and is bounded by Walton Lane to the west, Priory Road to the south, a railway line to the north, and the gardens of houses on Ince Avenue to the east. The cemetery grounds are included in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade II*.
The Jewellery Quarter is an area of central Birmingham, England, in the north-western area of Birmingham City Centre, with a population of 19,000 in a 1.07-square-kilometre (264-acre) area.
Witton Cemetery, which opened in Witton in 1863 as Birmingham City Cemetery, is the largest cemetery in Birmingham, England. Covering an area of 103 acres (0.42 km2), it once had three chapels; however, two of these were demolished in 1980. The cemetery would perform up to 20 burials a day; however, it was declared "full to capacity" in December 2013, allowing burials only in existing family plots, or of babies or cremated remains. Extra capacity was therefore provided at the nearby New Hall Cemetery. The cemetery office was opened in 1999.
Everton Cemetery, in Long Lane, Fazakerley, Liverpool, opened in July 1880.
Erdington Abbey Church on Sutton Road, Erdington, Birmingham, England, is the more usual name of the grade II listed church of Saints Thomas and Edmund of Canterbury. It is the church of a Roman Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Birmingham served by the Redemptorists. The abbey itself was the adjacent building, now Highclare School.
Arnos Vale Cemetery, in Arnos Vale, Bristol, England, was established in 1837. Its first burial was in 1839. The cemetery followed a joint-stock model, funded by shareholders. It was laid out as an Arcadian landscape with buildings by Charles Underwood. Most of its area is listed, Grade II*, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
The City Road Cemetery is a cemetery in the City of Sheffield, England that opened in May 1881 and was originally Intake Road Cemetery. Covering 100 acres (40 ha) it is the largest and is the head office for all the municipally owned cemeteries in Sheffield. The cemetery contains Sheffield Crematorium, whose first cremation was on 24 April 1905.
William Henry Bidlake MA, FRIBA was a British architect, a leading figure of the Arts and Crafts movement in Birmingham and Director of the School of Architecture at Birmingham School of Art from 1919 until 1924.
Holland William Hobbiss, was an English architect in the Birmingham area. He traded under the names Holland W. Hobbiss and Partners and Holland W. Hobbiss and M. A. H. Hobbiss.
The cemetery has had various titles including The Cemetery by the Common, Hill Lane Cemetery and is currently known as Southampton Old Cemetery. An Act of Parliament was required in 1843 to acquire the land from Southampton Common. It covers an area of 27 acres (11 ha) and the total number of burials is estimated at 116,800. Currently there are 6 to 8 burials a year to existing family plots.
The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium is a cemetery and crematorium in the east of London. It is owned and operated by the City of London Corporation. It is designated Grade I on the Historic England National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Brandwood End Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Brandwood ward of Birmingham, England.
The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, made up of the formerly separate Boroughs of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, has a wide range of cemeteries throughout its urban area. Many were established in the mid-19th century, a time in which the Victorian "cult of death" encouraged extravagant, expensive memorials set in carefully cultivated landscapes which were even recommended as tourist attractions. Some of the largest, such as the Extra Mural Cemetery and the Brighton and Preston Cemetery, were set in particularly impressive natural landscapes. Brighton and Hove City Council, the local authority responsible for public services in the city, manages seven cemeteries, one of which also has the city's main crematorium. An eighth cemetery and a second crematorium are owned by a private company. Many cemeteries are full and no longer accept new burials. The council maintains administrative offices and a mortuary at the Woodvale Cemetery, and employs a coroner and support staff.
Stoney Royd Cemetery is a cemetery in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England.
Hollybrook Cemetery is a cemetery in Bassett, Southampton, England, containing around 53,000 graves as of August 2012 and still open to new burials as of March 2016. It is one of the main cemeteries in Southampton.
Charles Edge was a British architect based in Birmingham.
Warrulan was an Aboriginal Australian, who migrated to England as a boy. He was educated in agriculture and found work as a saddlemaker, dying as a young man before his hoped-for return to his homeland.
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