Key Hill Cemetery
Key Hill Cemetery (OS grid reference SP059882), originally called Birmingham General Cemetery, is a cemetery in Hockley (the Jewellery Quarter), Birmingham, England. It opened in 1836 as a nondenominational cemetery (in practice nonconformist), and is the oldest cemetery, not being in a churchyard, in Birmingham.[1] 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".[2]
Key Hill Cemetery
It is the older of two cemeteries in Hockley, the other being Warstone Lane Cemetery, opened in 1847, which was originally reserved for members of the established Church of England.
The cemetery is no longer available for new burials.
A comprehensive record of memorial inscriptions of existing memorials (and of some of those removed by Birmingham City Council) may be consulted through the Jewellery Quarter Research Trust's website.[7]
Notable people buried in the cemetery include:
War graves[edit]
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.[10]