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Researching the history and times of people and places in and around Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter

Dick Empson

1943 - 2013

Committed to the preservation and history of Key Hill and Warstone Lane Cemeteries

KEY HILL AND WARSTONE LANE CEMETERIES

These two cemeteries form an important historical asset of the Jewellery Quarter. Originally co-terminus they are now separated by the main-line railway and Pitsford Street but each affords a special insight into the social history of a city emerging as the ‘work-shop of the world’.

Both were established as commercial ventures by cemetery companies seeking to tackle the notorious shortage of burial space faced by the rapidly expanding city. Each holds a range of intriguing catacombs and a wealth of funerary monuments on which are recorded many of Birmingham’s famous and influential business leaders, politicians and clergy.

Here will be found stories as diverse as that of the last Town Crier of Birmingham and the inventor of custard. Both locations are now in the care of Birmingham City Council and whilst closed to the purchase for new graves, they provide a calm oases within a bustling commercial quarter.

Written by Dick Empson

Future Plans

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